SANE 
EVANGELISM 



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COPyRIGHT DEPOSnV 



SANE 
EVANGELISM 



By 

WM. WlSTAR f^AMILTON 

TH. D., D. D. 

General Evangelist of Home Mission Board 
OF Southern Baptist Convention 

Author of 

" How to Grow in the Christian Life" 

" The Helping Hand," etc. 



*^Do the work of an evangelist y fulfil 
thy ministry,''— 2 Tim. 4: ^ 



PHILADELPHIA 

American Baptist Publication Society 

Boston Chicago Atlanta 

New York St. Louis Dallas 

eL\0 ' , 






U.8BARY of CONGRESS 
Tv/e Onci=s Received 

JAH II 1909 

,#ASS CU 'XXC No, 



Copyright 1909 by 
Wm. Wistar Hamilton 



Ai/ rights reserved 



PREFATORY NOTE 

The compiler of these addresses wishes, on be- 
half of our pastors and evangelists, to thank the 
speakers whose services have been so cheerfully 
given, and who, by furnishing their manuscripts, 
have made this volume possible. We are living 
in a time of great activity, and are perhaps witness- 
ing a more widespread spirit of evangelism than 
our country or the world has ever known before. 
History is making fast, and to the compiler all of 
these addresses (save one) were so epoch-making 
that it seemed to him they should be given again 
to those who were permitted to hear them, and 
should be handed on to those who were not so 
favored. 

So many are the inquiries which come from pas- 
tors and evangelists and other Christian workers 
as to methods, that it seemed wise to add at the 
close some few suggestions which have been used 
here and there. Even before the volume appears, 
there are many other little things which develop 
and which would be helpful. It must be here, how- 
ever, as Dr. John A. Broadus said to his classes in 
homiletics, " Genius must work out a way of its 
own." Often the best method is to have no method 

3 



IPretatotg iWote 



at all. Every one of us should inform himself as to 
what God is doing through others and with others, 
and asking the Lord for wisdom and grace and 
power, give to him our little all, and ask him to 
show us in what way we can do most for the bring- 
ing of this world to him. He who would be a 
forerunner of Jesus must be, as Dr. E. Y. Mullins 
says, a '' voice of one crying in the wilderness," 
and not an echo of another's voice or life or meth- 
ods. The desire is that this volume may help us all 
to accomplish what Paul commanded Timothy, ^' Do 
the work of an evangelist, fulfil thy ministry." 

Atlanta, Ga. W. W. Hamilton, 



TABLE OF CONTENTS 

Chapter Page 

Introduction 7 

I. Denominational Evangelism 15 

By George W. Truett, D. D. 

II. Sane Aggressive Evangelism 23 

By W. W. Hamilton, Th. D., D. D. 

III. The Primary Mission of the Churches of 

Jesus Christ 45 

By L. R. Scarborough, D. D. 

IV. Fundamentals of Evangelism 61 

By L. O. Dawson, D. D. 

V. New Testament Evangelism 83 

By B. H. Carroll, D. D., LL. D. 

VI. How THE Average Pastor May Make the 

Regular Service an Evangelistic Force . 103 

By E. C. Dargan, D. D. 

VII. Personal Evangelism 121 

By Henry Alford Porter, D. D. 

VIIL The Power of Pentecost 141 

By Len. G. Broughton, D. D. 

IX. Methods in Evangelism 151 

By W. W. Hamilton, Th. D., D. D. 

X. Caring for Young Converts 199 

By W= W. Hamilton, Th. D., D. D. 



INTRODUCTION 
TRUE EVANGELISM 

BY E. Y. MULLINS, D. D., LL. D., 

President of the Southern Baptist 

Theological Seminary, 

Louisville, Ky. 



INTRODUCTION 



A BOOK on sane evangelism certainly finds a wide 
field of usefulness awaiting it. I am greatly pleased 
with the form of words sane evangelism. The 
phrase connects two ideas which belong together. 
Evangelism is one of the most tremendous of all the 
agencies of Christianity. I presume the need for a 
sane type of evangeHsm will be conceded by all. 
There are churches in some regions which have 
been swept by a kind of evangelism which has left 
them twice dead, plucked up by the roots. The 
kind of evangelism which appeals solely to the 
emotions, which rehes upon clap-trap and ma- 
chinery, which in a superficial manner skims over 
the surface, and appeals only to those susceptible 
of being influenced by the spectacular, is not the 
kind which leaves a salutary condition in its wake. 
Churches which have suflfered thus are to be pitied. 

On the other hand, churches in large numbers 
there are which are dying for the lack of evangelism 
— churches which have conceived a prejudice against 
the whole idea of evangelism, and which have gone 
on in their unfruitful way for many years. What 
they need is a profound revival of their spiritual life. 

The abuses and extravagances of evangelism 

9 



lo Unttobuction 



result from a combination of influences and causes 
which cannot be cited in their completeness in this 
Introduction. I will name, however, a few of them. 
Among the most potent of these causes is the un- 
spiritual evangelist himself. The man who relies 
upon his evangelism for a reputation, or who is in 
the business for the money he can make out of it, 
or who seeks simply to gratify his ambition, has 
brought untold injury to the cause of Christ. Again, 
sincere evangelists, with the usual proportion of the 
human in their constitution and temperament, yield 
sometimes to false standards of success. The pas- 
sion for numbers tends always to grow upon the 
evangelist. He is unhappy except when there are 
great crowds and excitement or enthusiasm of some 
kind. While the great crowd and the enthusiasm 
are exceedingly desirable elements when they are 
produced in the proper way, they become sources of 
great weakness and injury when they are not the 
product of legitimate causes. The temptation to 
count is always a besetting sin of the unwary evan- 
gelist. Growing out of the above conditions, the 
evangelist easily adopts false methods of securing 
apparent results. These methods need not be enu- 
merated here. They are familiar to every reader 
who has had any experience or who has observed 
carefully the evangelism of the day. When a man 
with popular gifts and without adequate knowledge 
of the Scriptures, who possesses some skill in manip- 
ulating audiences, resorts to false methods of ob- 



Untrobuction " 



taining results, it is an easy road he has to travel to 
secure results that bulk large in reports, but that 
have little in them which is enduring. The appeal 
to the emotions, for the emotional man, of course, 
becomes a sore temptation. And while the appeal 
to the emotions is a powerful factor in all of the 
best preaching, it requires the weight of truth be- 
hind it to make it effective in the true sense. 

Now, it is evident that a sane evangeHsm must 
avoid all the above evil tendencies. The present 
writer is among those who believe they may be 
avoided; that evangelism may be shorn of its 
extravagances and excesses and made a potent in- 
strument of power in Christian work. Sane evan- 
gelism will put the spiritual welfare of the human 
soul in a supreme place in all its methods and plans. 
It will exalt this spiritual interest above the question 
of money, reputation, numbers, crowds, and what 
not. It will studiously and carefully seek to bring to 
bear the spiritual forces of the gospel upon the 
church where its work is being done, v/ith a view to 
'enlisting the church in the great task of soul-saving, 
and it will scrupulously guard the soul against all 
the snares that are incident to times of special effort 
and excitement. At the same time, it will not seek to 
suppress artificially, legitimate emotions and excite- 
ment. It will not forget that the spirits of men 
when profoundly stirred express themselves some- 
times in extravagant language. It will not be de- 
terred from its great task by the danger that 



12 Untrobuctton 



spiritual movements always carry with them, namely, 
that some extravagances will attend them. No 
evangelist should be held responsible for all the 
evils which flow from genuine evangelism. They 
are simply evils which are incident to human nature 
and which are unavoidable. 

Sane evangelism, therefore, will be compelled to 
pursue steadfastly the ends of true evangelism in 
spite of the incidental evils which spring up in its 
wake, while at the same time seeking at every point 
to guard against those evils through the proclama- 
tion of the whole gospel and the use of legitimate 
methods. Evangelism of this kind ought to prove a 
source of great inspiration to every pastor who 
comes in contact with it. All will concede that the 
proper and normal condition of any church is that 
of revival. I do not mean by revival that the 
church must necessarily be continually receiving 
members, though tTiis may be the case. What I 
mean by revival is that the church should be mani- 
festing the fruits of a vital Christianity in all its 
work and at all times. A sane evangelism will con- 
tribute toward this result more than any one 
factor which can be named. So far from serving 
as a substitute for evangelistic effort on the part of 
the pastor, sane evangelism will stimulate the pastor 
and the church to constant evangelistic effort. This 
is a consummation devoutly to be wished for in all 
of our churches. A type of evangelism which shall 
educate our pastors in the principles of true evangel- 



antrot)uction 13 



ism will, in this particular, serve a great purpose in 
the kingdom of God. 

The author of the present volume stands as a 
recognized illustration and embodiment of the higher 
kind of evangelism which has been outlined. He has 
been a pastor and knows the difficulties of the pastor 
in the prosecution of his "work. He has been a 
pastor-evangelist and knows the conditions which 
constantly confront the pastor in maintaining the 
evangelistic tone in the church. He is devoting his 
time now to the evangelistic work, and has had wide 
experience in this also. By natural gifts, inclination, 
and training, therefore, he is eminently qualified 
to bring a message to our people everywhere on so 
vital and fundamental a theme as sane evangelism. 
He is happy in his selection of contributors to this 
volume. It ought to be welcomed by thousands 
upon thousands of pastors and laymen who are inter- 
ested in this great work. 

E. Y. MULLINS. 



I 

DENOMINATIONAL EVANGELISM 

BY GEORGE W. TRUETT, D. D. 



This report was prepared for the Southern Baptist Con- 
vention by Doctor Truett, in connection with John D. 
Jordan, Cecil V. Cook, W. M. Vines, C W. Duke, and R. 
H. Marsh. 

"Whatever Dr. Geo. W. Truett writes is eagerly read 
by our people. This trumpet call from him on evangelism 
should be read by every preacher in the South and by 
thousands of our laymen and godly women.'' 

B. D. Gray, 
Corresponding Secretary, 



DENOMINATIONAL EVANGELISM 

EVANGELISM is the missionary spirit in ac- 
tion. It is the forerunner of churches and 
the builder of churches. It is essential to all Chris- 
tian expansion, and must give its benign influence 
to all sound teaching in the churches. Without the 
evangelistic spirit, it will be found impossible to 
maintain proper doctrinal standards. Correct teach- 
ing depends, for success, on a spiritual atmosphere. 
The Master, in his teachings, joined the two : God 
seeketh such to worship him as worship him in 
spirit and in truth. Whoever neglects the Spirit in 
teaching will fail. Whoever neglects the truth in 
evangelism will more than fail; for he will almost 
inevitably lead the multitudes into false hopes. 

The normal condition of every church and every 
preacher is evangelistic. The bane of many a 
church, strong in numbers, intelligence, wealth, 
indeed, in every element of strength but one, is that 
it has lost the seeking note. Congregations meet, 
preachers preach, the forms of worship are de- 
corously observed, but all without any purpose to 
reach the lost. This brings deadness, and in this 
atmosphere of death, worldliness increases, sound 

17 



13 Sane JBvarxQclism 

doctrine decays, congregations disintegrate and, in 
time, the desolation of Zion is complete. Doctor 
Dufif well said : " The church that ceases to be 
evangelistic soon ceases to be evangelical/' 

The Scriptures reveal to us the fact, not suf- 
ficiently emphasized of late, that while all preachers 
are to be evangelistic, God has called and given to 
the churches some men designated by the Holy 
Spirit especially for the service of evangelism. Such 
men have special endowments, and some of them are 
given an unusual measure of the Spirit for the work. 
When we cease to use these special gifts, in the way 
designed by the Giver, we discredit infinite wisdom, 
and to the same degree do hurt to the churches. It 
is the part of wisdom to look out among us men of 
this class, who measure up to the gospel standard, 
and see that the way is open for them to fulfil their 
ministry to the churches and to the lost world. - 

It gives your committee unfeigned pleasure to 
commend the wisdom of the Home Board in the se- 
lection of Evangelist W. W. Hamilton and his co- 
laborers, for this important field of Christian service. 
While this feature of the Board's work is new, yet 
the wisdom with which it has been managed, and the 
manifest blessing of God upon it, has been such as 
to encourage large hopes for the future. 

It is the mission of Baptists to bring the world 
to an acceptance of the teaching of the New Testa- 
ment, and to a faithful obedience to the divine order 
of service. Baptists can stand for nothing less than 



Denominational JEvan^elism 19 

service. Baptists can stand for nothing less than 
the New Testament and, beyond that, there is noth- 
ing that they desire or can accept as the truth. The 
evangeHst who has to do with converts, in the early 
stage of religious life, has the first opportunity to 
impress upon them the importance of walking ac- 
cording to the word of God, We are profoundly 
impressed that no one is sent of God to reform New 
Testament teaching, by leaving out such parts of it 
as mere sentiment and carnal wisdom may not ap- 
prove. The hour is upon us, when our Baptist 
people should aggressively urge the scriptural pres- 
entation of New Testament teaching, in all its parts, 
as the only real center of Christian unity in the 
world. It is sadly to be deplored that much of the 
present-day evangelism leaves converts unrelated to 
the churches, and wholly uninstructed as to their 
duty. In this way, many a life has been lost after 
the soul was saved. It behooves our Baptist people 
to send forth evangelists, after a New Testament 
order, to supply the evident need of such ministry, 
so that the people may not be misled by spurious 
evangelism. 

In the New Testament order, everything goes out 
from the churches, and draws back into the churches. 
The New Testament knows nothing of an evangel- 
ism that leaves the saved to live apart from the 
churches. Whatever good may be done by methods 
and institutions apart from the churches of Christ, 
we must remember that Christ has put his honor 



20 Sane lEvangelism 

in the churches, and has chosen them to be the 
channels through which to work out his purposes 
among men. And it needs to be said with all em- 
phasis, that the hope of all the generations to come, 
for a sound gospel, centers in the churches of the 
living God. Your committee, therefore, favors an 
evangelism which recognizes the churches in their 
supreme place, and everywhere makes for their up- 
building. 

Your committee believes that the Home Board 
will serve the churches and the denomination at 
large in a noble way by sending forth men as 
evangelists who are not only soul-winners, but who 
can also lead in evangelistic movements throughout 
all our vast territory. The work of scriptural evan- 
gelism needs to be taken up in all the district 
Associations and made the predominant purpose of 
their existence. It must be evident to every thought- 
ful Baptist that we are not making as much as we 
might of the district Associations. We note with 
pleasure that many of the Boards of the State Con- 
ventions have taken up this work and are pressing it 
with diligence and most gratifying success. It is to 
be fervently hoped that the Boards of all the district 
Associations, and of the State Conventions, will, in 
conjunction with the Home Board, see to it that the 
work of scriptural evangelism becomes predominant 
over all our vast field. If it may be so, then it will 
very largely settle all the questions of finances and 
discipline in the churches, and help more than all 



Denominational jEvaneelism 2 1 

things else to bring in the larger and better day for 
which we are longing and looking. 

It is the function of this Convention to foster 
' Home and Foreign Missions, and such other enter- 
prises as promote the Redeemer's kingdom. Cer- 
tainly we have been slow to come to a realization of 
the unspeakable importance of pressing this great 
instrument of power, which underlies all the other 
agencies of this Convention and promotes them all. 
And certainly this Convention, with its vast field, 
cannot turn over so great a means to those who will 
not use it for the constructive work of the denom- 
ination. The churches of the South look to the 
Hom.e Board as a channel through which they may 
co-operate in the constructive work of the denomi- 
nation in the home land. They have already signi- 
fied how joyfully they enter into co-operation for 
this gracious work of ministering to the lost. It 
is the part of the highest wisdom for this Convention 
and its Boards to meet the aspirations of the 
churches, covering the whole field of Christian 
activity. 

A careful reading of the New Testament, which 
must be our guide book through the ages, makes 
clear the fact that soul-winning and training went 
hand in hand. The Apostle Paul, who was the fore- 
most evangelist of the ages, not only planted 
churches, but also faithfully trained them for future 
service. It may be that Southern Baptists have been 
far more derelict in training than in evangelizing. 



22 Sane Bvanaelism 

But as we give ourselves more and more to the train- 
ing of the churches, we are ever to regard evangel- 
ism as one of the strongest auxiHaries to that end. 
The teacher in a school must have the right atmos- 
phere, or else his labor will be largely lost. Look- 
ing to the continuance of the churches, and the 
construction of a great missionary force in the 
world, it behooves this Convention to give its cor- 
dial sanction and its utmost influence to those things 
which enter into the life of the people, and bring 
those lives to the fullest fruitage in the Master's 
service. 



II 

SANE AGGRESSIVE EVANGELISM 

BY WILLIAM WISTAR HAMILTON, TH. D., D. D. 



This address was delivered at the Winona Lake Bible 
Conference, Winona Lake, Ind. 



II 

SANE AGGRESSIVE EVANGELISM 

I UNDERSTAND from the programme that I 
am to speak on '' Aggressive Evangelism." I 
should like to preface that subject with one other 
word and call it " Sane Aggressive EvangeHsm." 

I like all three of those words : sane, aggressive, 
evangelism. I like the word aggressive. This may 
be the correct exegesis of that Scripture which says : 
" The gates of hell shall not prevail." When a city 
goes to war it does not take its gates with it, but 
when its gates are attacked then is the time that it is 
on the defensive. So the figure here may be of the 
very gates of hell charged by the forces of righteous- 
ness. I Hke the word aggressive because it carries 
along with it the idea of enthusiasm. Enthusiasm is 
like the measles. If you have it it will break out on 
you — or it had better do so — and if it breaks out 
on you somicbody else will catch it. 

Riding along on a train in Kentucky in the fall 
of the year, I stood by the open door of the coach 
and watched the leaves, the dead leaves, as they pur- 
sued the moving train. And I said to myself, 
" Even dead leaves will follow something that has 
life about it." 

25 



s6 Sane BvauGeUsm 

I grew up in a city on the line between Tennessee 
and Virginia, half of the city in Tennessee and half 
in Virginia. Virginia's marriage laws are very 
strict. Tennessee's marriage laws are very lax. As 
a consequence a great many runaway couples came 
from Virginia to Tennessee to get married, simply 
crossing the State line. One day a runaway couple 
came to my town drawn by an ox team. I have 
remembered it with pleasure, because I have always 
been glad to associate something rapid with an ox 
team. 

What is evangelism ? A sane, aggressive, evangel- 
ism, what is it? Is it simply to tell the story of 
Jesus and his love? I think not. EvangeHsm, as I 
understand it, is so to proclaim the gospel — not 
simply to proclaim it — but so to proclaim the truths 
of the gospel as to demand a decision. I think a 
great many have a wrong conception of what evan- 
gelism is. They seem to have an idea that when an 
evangelist comes along everything they have ever 
loved and respected shall be set aside. 

A child in school was once asked w^hat a furlough 
was, and the child told the teacher that a furlough 
was a mule. The teacher insisted that the little lady 
was mistaken, but the child said that she was able to 
prove that she was right. The next morning when 
she came to school she brought with her a picture 
of a soldier riding along on a mule, and under the 
picture were the words, " Going Home on His 
Furlough." 



Sane UQQvcseivc EvauQclism 2 7 

Now, I believe if we can get a correct definition of 
evangelism, and get a proper enthusiasm into it, and 
have sanity along with the enthusiasm, that we have 
solved the great problem before us as evangelists and 
as pastors. It is very difficult for me to speak as an 
evangelist and not as a pastor, for I have been a 
pastor for thirteen years and an evangelist but one. 

In our Southern States among the different 
churches there has been a denominational movement 
set on foot. This question was brought to our Con- 
vention some three years ago, and again the next 
year, and then at the Convention in Chattanooga 
May, 1906, the movement was definitely launched, 
and in September last it was my privilege to begin 
the work. Now then, as I understand the temper of 
our people, and as I understand the movement, I 
want to present to you what I consider their idea of 
what a sane aggressive evangelism is. 

I. First of all, it must have a correct doctrinal 
basis. We cannot build an evangelistic house that 
will be any good on a foundation of sand. It must 
have a correct doctrinal foundation. The great 
doctrines as to God himself, as to the Bible, as to 
sin, as to hell, as to the atonement, as to the cross, 
as to heaven — the great doctrines of the word of 
God must stand underneath if we are to build a 
structure that is to be of any account in the storms 
of life and to last through eternity. There must be 
a correct doctrinal basis, and when we have the 
correct doctrinal basis in our church and evangelism, 



28 Sane ^Evangelism 

then that which we do as evangelists and pastors, 
working together, will be like the house built upon 
the rock. But when our perspective is wrong, when 
like some people, we have the idea that man is well, 
that there is nothing the matter with him, all that he 
needs is to have brought to him the fact that he is 
well, let him believe it and he will be well; or, if 
we have the idea that man is sick, true, he is sick; 
but he isn't very sick, not much the matter with him, 
all he needs is a little culture or a good example to 
follow ; if we have that idea our work will fail. 

On the other hand, if we believe that man is dead 
in trespasses and sin, then something supernatural is 
needed. If he is well, or if there is very little wrong 
with him, then there is no need of divine help. But 
if he is dead in trespasses and sin, there must be a 
divine power to bring him to life. When we have 
failed to realize the condition of man, or have gone 
wrong as to the responsibility of our position, we 
have started to build our house upon the sand. We 
will be like the boy with his wagon made from the 
running gear of a cast-off baby-carriage, an um- 
brella handle for a tongue, a soap box for a wagon- 
bed, and for wheels, disks cut from the end of a log. 
As he drew it along, an onlooker was amused to 
see how the wagon wobbled from side to side. 
The boy looked back questioningly to see what was 
the matter, knowing that something was wrong. 
The onlooker saw that in making the holes in his 
wheels the boy had failed to strike center. And I 



Sane UQQtcssivc jEvauQclism 29 

tell you, friends, in our evangelistic work and in our 
pastoral work, if, on the great doctrines of the word 
of God, of the condition of man, of the place of our 
Lord and his atoning work, we fail to strike center, 
we will go all sorts of w^ays except the right way. 
Somebody has said that if we stay right at the cross 
and right at the tomb, we will never go very far 
wrong anywhere else. I believe that to be true. 

II. Another thing in regard to this sane evangel- 
ism is the necessity of proper denominational super- 
vision. I rejoice in the work which has been done 
by the Presbyterians of this country; I rejoice in 
the fact that they have done it as Presbyterians ; and 
I rejoice in the example which they have set us. 

You will remember Dr. G. Campbell Morgan in 
his book on '' EvangeHsm,'' says that he is afraid of 
anything that claims to be undenominational. There 
ought to be a proper denominational supervision if 
the pastors and evangelists are to work together. In 
the church of Jesus Christ, as given us in the New 
Testament, there was a place for the evangelist. 
When he is isolated from some sort of church super- 
vision, then we may not expect there will be that 
confidence between him and the pastor that there 
should be. I do not know why, but I used to feel 
that way as a pastor. Maybe you can explain it. 
I used to take occasion to say when in meetings 
with my brother pastors, ^^ I want you to understand 
that I am not an evangelist.'^ Somehow, we have 
had it in our minds and hearts that the man who 



3<^ Sane JEvanoelism 

comes as an evangelist is a man who is not respon- 
sible to anybody, and a man who may do anything he 
wishes^ and who may go his own sweet way and do 
his own sweet will, and nobody have any right to 
say to him a word. 

I believe that with our evangelists properly con- 
nected with our churches, we may expect the very 
best kind of men, with the very best kind of preach- 
ing, done in the very best places, and done in the 
very best way. Some way, I believe in a sort of 
heredity in evangelistic services. This is my ex- 
perience. When a man comes to help me in my 
work, and he is a fighter, then the people who are 
born into the kingdom under that man's ministry 
are fighters. The man who comes to hold a meet- 
ing with me and who doesn't believe anything and 
who seems to float with the tide, anywhere, just 
as a sentimental sort of jellyfish, the people who 
come into my church under his ministry partake of 
that man's characteristics. But when a man comes 
who believes in the word of God, who believes 
in the power of God, when a man comes who be- 
lieves in the tremendous fact of sin and the tre- 
mendous need of a supernatural power to save 
man from sin, then the people who come into my 
church under that man's ministry stay with me, an 
abiding work. There is never a time in the history 
of a pastor more important to the good of his church 
than when he asks a man to come and help him in 
evangelistic services. 



Sane UQQXcssivc jEvanaelfsm 31 

I believe in holding meetings everywhere; I be- 
lieve in preaching in tents, in tabernacles, in halls, 
in saloons, on the street. I believe in preaching the 
gospel anywhere, but somehow or other there is 
always a peculiar tie, it seems to me, between a 
man's soul and the work of Jesus Christ when that 
man has been brought into the kingdom through the 
help of the churches. We always love our birth- 
place. I was born down in Kentucky, so they tell 
me, near Hopkinsville. My parents moved back to 
Virginia when I was ten months old, and I had never 
returned to the place of my birth. Some time ago 
I was in Hopkinsville, and met a man who said he 
knew the house in which I was born ; he remembered 
having gone to school to my mother in one room of 
that house; he remembered one day when I fell 
down the stone steps and broke up the school, and 
he was going to take me out to see the place. We 
started out one cold November morning for the 
ten-mile drive, and on the way saw his mother, who 
also remembered my birth, and had helped to dress 
me. 

We drove out to the place, and I went all over it 
with delight. I took some kodak views of the house 
and the grounds, and wrote to my mother about 
the visit, and to her were sent the pictures. I kept 
writing about it all, but I noticed that she didn't have 
much to say. I kept on writing, and she kept on 
saying nothing, and finally I wrote and said, " Look 
here, mother, there is something wrong about this, 



32 Sane jEvanaeUsm 

what is it? " And she wrote back and said, '' Son, 
I am sorry to tell you, but that isn't the place." 
And I don't know where I was born. 

I am like some Christian people who do not know 
the time and place of their salvation. They know 
they love God, and I know I am here. Never- 
theless away down in my heart there is a peculiar 
tie to the place of my birth. I failed to find it, 
and I don't know where it is, but I have that attach- 
ment for it. When a man is born into the kingdom 
of God, in touch with the people of the church of 
Jesus Christ, there is a peculiar tenderness in that 
man's heart for the church. God pity the pastor 
who will not co-operate, or the church which stands 
aloof from the tender bond of any great evangel- 
istic work in their city. They are missing the 
opportunity of putting their power and their life 
into the hearts of men and women who are brought 
into the kingdom of God at that time. 

III. Then again there should be correct methods 
of work in order to have a sane evangelism. I be- 
lieve that as pastors — and I speak as I have said, 
from thirteen years of pastoral experience and one 
of evangelistic — I believe as pastors we do not make 
the proper preparation for the evangelistic services. 
I feel sure that the evangelists who are here will 
bear me out in this. I don't know whether or not 
you feel as I used to feel, that it is almost a sin to 
advertise a meeting. Read again and listen closely 
to the second chapter of the Acts. The most sensa- 



Sane aggressive JEvanfielism 33 

tionally advertised meeting I ever heard of is told 
about, " A sound from heaven as of a rushing, 
mighty wind, cloven tongues like as of fire," and the 
apostles speaking with other tongues — such a noise 
being made that everybody comes to see what is the 
matter, and then when the multitudes are gathered 
together the people of the '' upper room '' go about 
in the crowd speaking to every man in his own 
language and telling him face to face of the wonder- 
ful work of God. This great inquiry meeting is fol- 
lowed by Peter's sermon, and no wonder it produced 
such results. 

Now, you get your people down in the city, get 
them to make so much noise that the people will run 
together to see what is the matter, and then trust- 
ing to the Spirit for power, do personal work among 
them, and preach to them the gospel, and you will 
have done something like that which took place on 
the day of Pentecost. I do not mean to advertise 
the evangelist, I do not mean to herald his name 
here and there, but to let the people know that you 
as a pastor and as a church are expecting something 
to take place. If you do not expect anything, if 
you work and pray and talk and advertise meetings 
in a ten-cent way, you may expect ten-cent results. 

I was crossing the Mississippi a few days ago, and 
looking down on one side I saw a little bit of a house 
— I would call it a shack, I don't know what you 
would call it up here — and up over the door, written 
in letters, or supposedly painted in letters, with here 



34 Sane BvanQclism 

and there an " s " turned the wrong way, with some 
small letters and some capitals, was this sign: 
" First-class meals served to both white and col- 
ored." Now, that fellow couldn't make me believe he 
served a first-class meal ; if he swore to it, I couldn't 
believe it. Down in Atlanta, Ga., I saw on a side 
street a little dingy, dirty place, and up over the 
door the words, " First-class Restaurant." Don't 
believe it! Couldn't beHeve it! 

When you and I go at the great work of God in a 
fourteenth-class way, we cannot make people believe 
it is a first-class piece of business. As pastors, we 
are to make proper preparation. As evangelists, we 
are to go as the messengers of God. Yes, I love to 
think of myself as a messenger boy to bring the tele- 
gram from God. I love to think of myself as a har- 
vest hand, who comes in with the pastor and with 
the people at the time when meetings are being held, 
to help them reap what they have been sowing. 
Unless the evangelist comes with that spirit, and 
with that consciousness of his own small place in 
the kingdom of God, he will not be doing a sane 
work. 

Then too, we ought to think of the members of 
the church as fellow-laborers — and I believe it is 
insane when the members of the church do not feel 
that they have a part in bringing to pass the win- 
ning of souls. I believe it is insane when the men 
and women who are in the pew sit back in the 
church and have no consciousness of responsibility 



Sane UQQtcssivc Evangelism 35 

in the work of bringing others to Jesus. Each one 
of us has some part in it. Every member of every 
church shares in the responsibiHty of bringing the 
lost to the foot of the cross. Their blood is upon us 
until we have warned them, and their blood will God 
require at our hands. 

I came across a Negro poem not long ago, cHpped 
from a Pittsburgh paper. It is as follows : 

De Lawd he lied a job fo' me, 

But Ah'd so much to do, 
Ah ast him git somebody e'se, 

Aw wait till Ah got f roo. 
Ah don't know how de Lawd come out, 

But he seemed to git along; 
But Ah felt kind o' sneakin' like, 

'Kase Ah knowed Ah'd done him wrong. 

One day Ah need de Lawd myse'f. 

An' need him right away. 
He nevah answer'd me at all, 

But Ah could heah him say, 
Way down in mah accusin' heaht: 
" Ah's got too much to do, 
Yo' bettah git somebody e'se. 

Aw wait till Ah gits froo." 

Now when de Lawd he hey a job. 

Ah nevah tries to shu'k. 
Ah draps whatevah Ah's on han'. 

An' does de good Lawd's wuk. 
Mah own affaihs kin run along. 

Aw wait till Ah gits froo, 
Nobody e'se kin do de job 

De Lawd lay out for you. 



36 Sane Bvanaelfsm 

While speaking of this phase of the subject of 
evangeHsm I would like to say just one thing 
more, a thing that has grown upon me in the past 
few months, but which has been upon me ever since 
I have been a pastor, and that is, that in our evangel- 
istic work we too often make a brilliant dash in- 
stead of a persistent siege. My experience as a 
pastor was that just at the time when it seemed to 
me the windows of heaven were opening and the 
hearts of the people were responding, my helper who 
had come to me, or my pastor friend, had to go. 

We have a man in our Southern ranks — I wish 
you could know him — a man who knows how not 
only to lay siege to the throne of God, but a man 
who knows how to lay siege to a city. A man who 
goes in and stays for a month or for months. This 
man, filled with power, went to Memphis just for a 
short time, and the power of God came upon his 
work, and he continued for months, and there were 
thousands of people who came out on God's side in 
that siege which was laid to Memphis with such 
supernatural, overwhelming power. I like the per- 
sistent siege. It is growing with us. I don't know 
how it is with you — this idea of going into a city, 
or into a community, and remaining there, laying 
siege. As one of our pastors expressed it, we have 
too often, in our evangelistic services, given an exhi- 
bition of a brilliant dash instead of a steady, con- 
tinuous effort. 

IV. The fourth thing about which I wish to speak 



Sane UQQVcesivc Bvangelism 37 

as constituting a sane aggressive evangelism is 
this : there must be correct ideals possessing us. 

One of the most interesting studies that I have 
made has been a study of the Bible revivals, to see 
what were their effects upon the hearts of the 
people. You will remember that powerful prayer 
of Habakkuk when he prayed that the Lord would 
revive his work ; he said, '' O Lord, revive thy work in 
the midst of the years, in the midst of the years make 
known ; in wrath remember mercy,'' and went on to 
call the people's attention to the majesty of God. 
Unless there is brought before us in evangelistic 
work this sense of the overwhelming majesty of 
God there will be nothing to bring to men the con- 
sciousness of theif sin. A man, a vulgar, impure 
man who stands in the presence of a pure woman is 
convicted of his impurity. A sinful, lost man who 
stands in the presence of a holy God, and who 
realizes that presence, will be convicted of his sin. 
I believe if we are going to have a turning to God 
it must be because the majesty of God is brought to 
the attention, to the realization of his people, and 
because they see his majesty they realize and recog- 
nize their own sinfulness. 

Some people have the idea that to become a 
Christian is to make the face grow long and to lose 
all the joyfulness cit of the life. I wonder where 
that idea came from. I have about come to the 
conclusion that it has come from those Christians 
who are trying to serve God and the devil both. 



38 Sane JEvangelism 

The world sees them and says, " Why, they are 
long-faced, they are not happy, I do not want to 
be like that." I believe such professing Christians 
to be the most unhappy people in the world; they 
can't serve the Lord and they don't want to give up 
the world ; they can't even serve the devil well. 

I lived in a town, as I told you, on the line be- 
tween Tennessee and Virginia. It is a most un- 
happy situation. Here is a man guilty of some 
crime and you can't touch him because he runs over 
on the other side of the line. Here is a man who 
commits some crime on the Tennessee side and you 
can't touch him because he runs over into Virginia. 
Here are two mayors, two organizations for police 
protection, two systems of public schools, two sys- 
tems of water works. The time changes there ; you 
ride along in the streetcar, and if you sit on the 
south side of the car it is twelve o'clock, and if you 
sit on the north side, it is one o'clock, though the 
people use mostly the Eastern time. It causes much 
confusion, and is a very unhappy state of affairs. 

Some time ago we had a lawsuit between the Com- 
monwealth of Tennessee and the Commonwealth of 
Virginia. Virginia sued Tennessee for nine miles 
of territory. You will remember that the line be- 
tween Virginia and North Carolina runs west until 
it comes to White Top Mountain. It then runs 
north nine miles, and then west again. Now Vir- 
ginia said that this line ought to have gone straight 
west, and so sued for the territory — ^that nine 



Sane UqqxcsbIvc jEvanoelfsm 39 

miles — and the case was taken to the United States 
Supreme Court. Well, we did not know whether 
we lived in Virginia or in Tennessee. 

Do you know what is the matter with the people 
who are unhappy? You study them. They are on 
the line. The people who live over in Richmond 
know they live in Virginia, and the people who live 
in Nashville know they live in Tennessee, but we 
who live on the line are not just sure which State 
we are in. If you will get clear over into the state 
of righteousness, then you will have no doubt about 
the matter. The greatest troubles come to these 
people who are living on the line, and they are the 
long-faced Christians. 

I knew an old Negro cook in the hotel — I grew 
up in the hotel — she was the pastry cook, and one 
day she said something which led me to say to her, 
" Why, Aunt Kate, I thought you were a Christian." 
'^ Oh," she said, '' go along, Marse Willie ; I is a 
Christian; but nobody can't live a Christian in 
a hotel kitchen. When I comes to the hotel of a' 
mornin' I hangs my religion on the fence, and gets 
it when I goes back at night." Religion that can- 
not be taken everywhere is of no account anywhere. 

Now, I believe in the joy of the Christian life, 
that kind of life which brings us happiness and peace 
and power as Christians. I believe that a sane 
evangelism does not put long faces on any one. I 
thank God for the happiness that came into my heart 
as a Christian when ten years of age. I thank God 



40 Sane Evangelism 

that I became a Christian so early. I thank God 
that I had a father and mother who beheved that 
God could save a child in his younger years, and 
that the pastor believed in it, and that the evangelist 
believed in it. I grew up in the midst of temptation 
in the hotel life, and I believe that the fact that I 
gave my heart to God when just a child, and the 
fact that I had a father and mother who loved God 
and who watched over my steps and helped me, is 
the answer to the question as to how I came out of 
such temptation to live for God and to try to serve 
him. I thank God too for the joy that comes from 
Christian service. It doesn't put a long face on any 
one. 

A pastor down in Tennessee was riding on the 
train one day, when a young lady said to him, 
" You preachers must have a pretty monotonous 
sort of life ? " The minister said, *' What do you 
mean ? " 

" Well, you cannot enjoy any of the things which 
other people enjoy." 

" What do you mean by that ? " 

*' Well, you cannot dance.'' 

" How do you know I cannot ? " 

" Well, you don't dance," she said, *' and you 
don't play cards." 

" No." 

" And you don't go to the theater ? " 

" No," said he. " Well, what else? " 

" Well," said she, " it seems to me that if you 



Sane UqqvcssIvc Evanselism 41 

cannot dance, or play cards, or go to the theater, 
there isn't much in Ufe for you." 

He said, "Wait a minute; I will grant just for 
the sake of argument that you are happier than 
I am because you do not deny yourself some things 
which I deny myself, that I am not as happy as you 
are because I do not do some things which you do." 

" Now, down below you is another class of people 
who do not deny themselves many things which you 
do deny yourself; if they want to get drunk they 
do so ; if they want to use profanity they do so. If 
they desire gratification of lust they go on their sin- 
ful way. They murder if they want to do so. 
Now," said he, '' according to your idea they are 
happier than you are because they do not deny them- 
selves the privilege of doing those things which you 
do deny yourself. No," said he, '' you are happier 
than they are because you do deny yourself some 
things, and I say to you that I am happier than you 
are because I deny m.yself some things which you 
do not deny yourself." 

Oh, the joy of the Christian life for a man who 
can stand and be conscious of the fact that the power 
of God is controlling and helping him. A young 
man came to me at Eureka Springs the other night 
— came up into my room. He is a traveling man from 
North Carolina. He told me he didn't have power 
in the times of temptation to resist the tempter, and 
he asked me to pray for him that he might have 
help. He felt his lack of self-control. He was di- 



42 Sane EvangeUsm 

rected to Jesus, who was so named because he shall 
save his people from their sins. 

I remember as a boy I thought the greatest ambi- 
tion of my life would be just to sit up on top of a 
circus wagon and hold the reins over sixteen fine 
horses, beautiful fellows ! To sit up there and hold 
the reins over sixteen well-trained, beautiful horses — 
what could be better for a Kentuckian ? Well, I say 
to you, friends, as I stand here to-night, conscious 
of my own weakness, and praying God for his 
power, there is such a thing as a man or woman 
sitting upon the throne of his own being and holding 
the reins over himself, and saying '' No, you cannot 
go that way, you must go this way." The joy of 
supremacy through the power of God, over your 
own being, to control your own mental powers, your 
own spiritual outlook, to still all your being in the 
name of Almighty God, to command all in the name 
of the King, and make your life tell for him, this is 
the joy of the Christian life. 

Brethren and sisters, men and women, I believe 
with all my heart that in the Southland — yes, in the 
North and the West — we are in the day-dawn of 
the greatest revival the States have ever known, and 
I say to you to-night that the work which is being 
done by the evangelists in the Southern States is not 
the one-thousandth part of this great movement. I 
believe the pastors are coming to fulfil, are coming 
to fill full the work of their ministry by doing the 
work of an evangelist. I thank God that not merely 



Sane UqqvcbsIvc Evanoelfsm 43 

by the work of the evangeHsts, who are going here 
and there through the Southland, but out of the 
great loving hearts of our pastors more and better 
work is being done than ever before. More men are 
going back from our conventions and associations 
and conferences and assemblies, from our evangel- 
istic meetings, with their hearts and souls and lives 
on fire with the power of God Almighty, to lead 
their own people in helping the lost to a saving 
knowledge of Jesus Christ. 

This is our hope, this is our belief, this is our 
conviction, this is our prayer, that the King of 
Glory, through the hearts and lives of men, may 
come into the Southland with marvelous swiftness. 
Pray with us that God may give us the answer to 
our prayer ! 



Ill 

THE PRIMARY MISSION OF THE 
CHURCHES OF JESUS CHRIST 



BY L. R. SCARBOROUGH, D. D. 



This address was delivered at the evangelistic mass 
meeting of the Southern Baptist Convention, Hot Springs, 
Ark. 



Ill 

THE PRIMARY MISSION OF THE 
CHURCHES OF JESUS CHRIST 

WHAT is the main thing for which the churches 
are set in the world? What was the chief 
motive in the heart of our Saviour when he organ- 
ized his church and set it going in the world's re- 
demption ? There must have been many reasons for 
it, but what was the main reason. ^^ Why has this 
church reproduced itself in thousands of forms since 
that time? Why do these churches exist to-day? 
Why all the expense and talent and energy and time 
consumed in the maintenance and propagation of the 
work of the churches? It is the purpose of this 
address to lay emphasis on the primary mission of 
these churches. I wish to lay down two mighty 
propositions. 

I. The Main Business of a Church of Christ is to 
Win Men to Christ for Salvation and for Service. 
In a trip to an Eastern city, I spent a Sunday in one 
of the greatest Baptist churches in the world. At 
nine o'clock in the morning, in a prayer room of the 
church, there were two hundred and fifty men en- 
gaged in telling their experiences in spiritual war- 
fare which they had had during the week previous. 

47 



4S Sane Bvangelism 

A physician of world renown, at the head of a great 
medical school and hospital got up and told of how 
a wealthy man had come from a Western State to be 
operated upon. There was one chance in a thousand 
for his recovery. For days he was nourished for 
the operation. Just before the operation, in an 
adjoining room, the attendants and nurses were 
asked by this great surgeon to retire that he might 
be alone with the patient. The doctor asked the 
patient if he was a Christian. The reply was, " My 
mother was a devout Christian. She raised me 
right. As wealth came, temptations of pleasure 
and sin came. I married a woman who was only a 
nominal Christian. She was a pleasure lover. I 
lost interest in the problem of my personal religion. 
I am now a dying man, and I am Christless and 
hopeless." The doctor said, " I do not desire to 
frighten you. I am a Christian. I do not want a 
man to go from my operating-table to hell. I do 
not know the result of the operation. I do not know 
whether you will live or die, but you need to be a 
saved man." The doctor then related how in a few 
words he told him about the crucified Saviour, and 
knowing how few were the chances for recovery and 
how frail the weakened body was, he asked the Sa- 
viour to save the sick man. In a little while, the man's 
heart was broken, tears of repentance, exercise of 
faith, and a glad profession of Jesus as his personal 
Saviour, followed. Then the doctor, with great 
emotion, told how an hour or so later, under the 



primary flilission ot tbe Cbutcbes 49 

operation, the new-born soul went from the oper- 
ating-table to meet his Lord. And then, with a 
great sway of spiritual emphasis he said, '' My 
brethren, this is the main job of a Christian." 

I believe the doctor expressed in these words the 
main mission of a church of Jesus Christ. The 
proof of my proposition is seen in the following : 

I. This idea of the mission of the church of 
Christ is seen in its foundation laid by Jesus himself. 
In Matt. 16 : i8, he says, '' upon this Rock I will 
build my church and the gates of hell shall not pre- 
vail against it.'' Here is a great military picture. 
Hell is a mighty walled city, with impregnable forts 
and great gates, standing as an almost irresistible 
fortress against the onslaughts of an invasion. The 
church of Christ is pictured as a trained and 
equipped army making attack upon the walls with 
their fortresses and gates. He says so irresistible is 
the martial spirit, so progressive and sustained the 
attacks of this army of the Lord that the gates of hell 
cannot stand against their onward movement. It 
pictures conflict. It speaks of spiritual conquest. It 
intimates that a church is to be a conquering force, 
and the world is to be won by its progressiveness. 
This notion is wrought into the very foundation of 
the church, and this spirit of conquest, and the 
pushing of the battle to the gates, is the one mighty 
business of the church. 

2. This is seen also in the life and ministry of 
Jesus Christ. From the dripping waters of the 

D 



so Sane JEvanoellsm 

Jordan to the glorious ascent from the mount of 
Olives, Jesus is seen to be busy in winning men to 
life everlasing. He drove to one main thing. In 
the crowded streets, in the thronged temple, 
standing on the hillside, or in the boat at the sea- 
shore as the multitudes crowded about him, in 
private, in the closed room with a Nicodemus, on 
the public highway with the woman at the well, 
anywhere and everywhere, Jesus made for one 
thing — the winning of the world to himself. It is 
true that he trained and instructed his disciples, but 
it is also true that he did this while leading them 
after the lost. This main mission of the Saviour 
predominated in every miracle, or parable, in every 
public address or private conversation. It seemed 
to have been on his heart and thrilled his soul in 
his long nights of trial, hard days of labor. It 
seemed to have been the chief thing on his great 
heart, whether being transfigured by the supernal 
light of glory, or in the superhuman darkness of 
Calvary's awful agony. He talked of dying for 
sinners while closest to heaven. He stopped dying 
to save a sinner while closest to hell. Truly the 
divine writer tells the whole truth concerning Jesus 
when he says, '' The Son of man came to seek and 
to save that which was lost." If this was the main 
mission of Christ the Head of the church, and if it is 
the function of the body to do the will of the head, 
then certainly the main business of the great spirit- 
ual body of Jesus Christ is to win men, and to train 



ptfmari? miission of tbe Cbutcbes s^ 

men to win men. No preacher and no church can 
be most like Jesus and not win souls. Every 
preacher and every church is most like Jesus while 
winning a soul to salvation. 

3. The proof of this proposition is seen also in 
the spiritual equipment of the churches. Their 
officers, their government, their ordinances, their 
doctrine, their book, all these are just the things to 
be used in soul-winning. Every officer of the 
church ought to be chosen with some reference to 
the matter of winning the world to Christ. His 
qualifications for soul-winning ought to be dis- 
covered before he becomes an officer. The doctrines 
are not unfriendly to soul-winning. The fact is 
that a doctrineless soul-winner is a soul-winner 
of the poorest type. There is no doctrine in God's 
book but what can be used in showing the face and 
love of Jesus Christ. The very machinery of the 
churches as seen in the New Testament, is but the 
livery of heaven to carry God's power to the lost, 
and we should make it so in our churches to-day. 

4. The truth of this proposition receives emphasis 
also when we look at the charter of the churches. 
The Great Commission of our Saviour wherever 
expressed in the New Testament, gives its loudest 
note on going and making disciples. The churches 
to-day ought to put the emphasis where Jesus put 
it. He did not leave out the matter of training, and 
establishing disciples, but he showed that the best 
training should be going on while you are after 



52 Sane JEvanaelism 

the lost. His notion was not to stop and train, but 
go and train. The promise of the Divine Presence is 
conditioned on the going and making disciples. So 
the truth taught will be vitalized by the divine 
power if it is put in the evangelistic atmosphere. 
We must not magnify our system of truth at the 
cost of lost souls. So when you study the charter 
of the churches, you find preeminently their mission 
is to go after the lost and win them to Jesus. 

5. The truth of the proposition finds mighty 
backing in the early history of the churches. Apos- 
tolic churches were soul-winning churches. Every 
church in the early times that became great in 
service had as its chief mark its evangelistic spirit. 
At one time every member of the church of Jeru- 
salem except the apostles had gone afield for the 
lost. Revivals broke out everywhere. They, like 
Jesus, picked up souls for Christ in the byways 
and hedges. The Antioch church was so evangel- 
istic at home that at its earliest stage it started out 
with holy hands and prayers, the mighty missionary 
movement to the Gentiles. Ephesus was a great 
evangelistic church. For more than three years 
Paul led them in a day and night cam.paign for the 
lost. It was a campaign from house to house with 
tears and prayers. And so it was with the other 
New Testament churches. They regarded that the 
preservation of their life of conquest, the main- 
tenance of their doctrines, the establishment of their 
faith depended upon their pressing ever and anon 



pcimatB finission ot tbe Cburcbes 53 

the soul-battle to the gates. Glorious were their 
triumphs; hard-fought were their battles; perse- 
cution was red-handed; perils besieged them from 
every side; enemies within and without tried to 
hedge their way; but mightily toward world-con- 
quest they went on in the companionship of Jesus 
Christ. It is seriously doubted if the spirit of the 
church to-day can be consonant with the spirit of 
New Testament churches, or lay claim to apostolic 
kinship, which does not press as its preeminent 
business, the winning of lost souls. 

6. Probably the mightiest apostolic proof of this 
proposition is found in the product and incarnation 
of the primary motive of the churches — the life and 
ministry of the Apostle Paul. It seems that Paul 
got about all out of Jesus that a human soul can get. 
Paul has no peer in all the world. He was the in- 
carnation of the doctrine, faith, and work of the 
churches of Jesus Christ. He was as a man what 
Jesus wants in a church. He lived the life of a 
church. What you see Paul doing you are com- 
manded as churches to do. Who will say that 
Paul was not a soul-winner? When you look at 
the book of Romans he seems to be a theological 
professor, filling to the full the chair of systematic 
theology, and yet from another view-point in his 
highest flights and deepest plunges into the doctrines 
he is only squeezing the evangelistic juice out of 
them for the purpose of winning the world to Christ. 
He was a doctrinaire, a great teacher in spiritual 



54 Sane Bvanaelfsm 

philosophy and systematic theology; he was a 
heroic defender of the faith; a debater of the first 
water; he was a church-builder. Every interest of 
the kingdom of God lay close to his heart, and 
he knew how to do well everything Jesus wanted 
done; but in it all and through it all the chief est 
spiritual qualification of the Apostle Paul was his 
passion for lost men and his knowledge of how to 
win them. Paul was the true output of the spirit 
and life of the churches of Jesus Christ. The 
churches will do well to-day to follow him in going 
after the lost and giving emphasis to the main 
thing. 

7. The last proof of my proposition I wish to 
give is found in the practical test of the churches 
to~day. Recently I visited two great churches in 
the same city. They were alike in wealth, in mag- 
nificent houses of worship, intellectual and social 
qualifications of their pastors. I visited one on a 
Sunday morning service, the other at the Sunday 
night service. The weather was ideal in both cases. 
In the one there was a congregation of fifty, no 
fellowship abounded. The service was dry and for- 
mal and lifeless. The visitor did not feel that he had 
been to worship. In the other church the congrega- 
tion was three thousand. Glorious fellowship 
abounded. Intense and spiritual and full of buoyant 
life were the services. The sermon came as the 
warm breath of God, inspiring and stirring, awa- 
kening every element of life in the soul. The choir 



ptimari? rniission ot tbe Cburcbcs 55 

of three hundred sang the spiritual songs of Zion. 
The visitor felt, as the service closed, that he 
wanted to go out and hold a meeting and lead souls 
to Christ. The pastor of this church said : ^' Last 
Sunday I baptized twenty-eight as the gatherings 
from a few recent services/' I said, " Why this 
great crowd, this Sunday-school of thousands of 
children and young people? Why this swelling of 
spiritual tides in your church?" The great pastor 
modestly answered, " We go after souls here." 

The more a church comes to its soul-winning 
heritage, the larger the congregation, the better 
the fellowship, the sounder the orthodoxy, the 
greater the liberality, the mightier the mission 
spirit. If you want to preach to crowds let it go 
out that you are winning souls, and that in every 
service the lost man has a chance to be saved. If 
you want divisions and strife, bickerings and back- 
bitings to flee as the mist from the sun, sound loud 
and long the evangelistic note in your church. If 
you want your doctrines to stick and to stay, 
for old-time truth to have its preeminent sway; if 
you want to keep in with Christ and Paul on doc- 
trine, keep up with them in your evangelism. If 
you want the treasuries of the people's money to be 
open to the treasurer of your church, lead their souls 
to hunger, their eyes to weep, their prayers to be 
importunate, and their lives to go out after the 
lost. If you want your young men to be preachers 
of the gospel, and your young women to offer them- 



56 Sane BvauQelism 

selves on the missionary altar of service, see to it 
that their church life is evangelistic and you will not 
miss the mark of your desires far. Surely God's 
approval to-day is shown in the spiritual progress of 
the evangelistic churches. So let us lead our churches 
in training in God's word and work, but let us do 
it while we lead them on the soul-winning way. 

11. Every Element of Power in the Life and 
Organization of a Church Ought to be Fired by the 
Spirit and Trained in the Methods of Soul-winning. 
The church life is not divided into the spiritual and 
secular. There oughtn't to be any secularism in 
the life of a church, and it is our high duty to make 
every part of the church life spiritual. 

1. The organizations in the churches ought to be 
mastered by the evangeHstic spirit and passion. 
The Sunday-school, the young people's organiza- 
tions, the women workers, the deacons, the trustees, 
and the preacher ought to have running through 
their work, and dominating their service, the soul- 
winning notion. 

2. The musical programme of our churches ought 
to be a help and not a hindrance to the spirit of 
evangelism. It is thought in many places that the 
coming in of the classical and operatic in our 
church music is the enemy of soul-winning power. 
A church that learns to love the classical in music in 
church worship is likely to drift from soul burden 
for the lost. The fashionable and the formal in 
church life will drive out the spirit of evangelism. 



primary flnission ot tbe Cburcbes s 7 

We should look well to soul-winning when we 
look after the organization and life of our choirs. A 
godless singer is not likely to sing the gospel into the 
soul of a lost man, and is about as much out of 
place as a godless man in the pulpit. If the musical 
programme puts the sermon in a corner and the 
preacher in a sack as a small appendix to the hour of 
worship and a harmless convenience in the work of 
a church, souls are not likely to crowd to that church 
for eternal life. Anything in the worship of the 
church of Christ that hinders the spirit of evangel- 
ism is a high-handed enemy of the life and mission 
of that church. 

3. The preacher and his preaching should know 
and sound loud the evangelistic note. The life of 
every one of us preachers ought to be an inspiration 
to the lost of our congregations to come to Christ. 
Also our preaching ought to have that spiritual soul 
plea in it that stirs men's hearts and makes them seek 
the Saviour. If we make for eloquence or nice say- 
ings or beauty of speech ; if we leave out the gospel 
and put in anything else, we are not likely to build 
a spiritual church, or one that is marked by its soul- 
winning conquests. More and more our preaching 
should come back to God's word and the simplicity 
of the gospel. It was a sad comment on a preach- 
er's own life when recently he said, " Out of four 
hundred well-wrought-out sermons, I doubt if I 
could use twenty-four of them in winning the lost 
to Christ." The fact is that in every one of our 



58 Sane Bvanaelism 

sermons there should be gospel light enough and 
the Spirit's power enough to give every man a 
chance to be saved. 

4. The life and ministry of the pew ought to be 
built around the evangelistic passion. The soul- 
winning preaching of the pulpit, the spiritual songs 
of the choir ought to have the backing of the pew 
to reenforce their efforts for the lost. The pew is 
the pulpit's witness for the truth of its preaching. 
The pew must furnish the atmosphere for the gospel. 
The man that hears the gospel and heeds it for 
salvation is under a weighty obligation to help the 
man who preaches the gospel in his efforts to win 
the lost. So the main purpose and mission of the 
church, the winning of the world to Christ to-day, 
should mark every particle of the life of a church. 
The story is told of a Pennsylvania farmer. He 
lived a few miles above the city, built on the high 
bluffs of the rapidly flowing stream. Just below 
the city were the precipitous falls over which the 
mad waters went in awful fury. The bridge from 
the city was high above the mad water. It was 
in the springtime. The snows from the mountain 
were melting and the ice-floes loosening from their 
anchorage were plunging down the stream. The 
farmer saw his fisherman's boat was endangered by 
the mad waters. He got in his boat, loosened its 
anchorage, and pushed out to secure it in a safer 
place. He was struck by an ice-floe and driven 
rapidly to the current ; losing his oar, he was carried 



primary flaission of tbe Cburcbes 59 

down the swift-flowing stream. A neighbor riding 
toward the city saw his danger and hastened to the 
city to give the alarm. From store to store, he told 
the merchants to bring their long ropes, and in a 
little while every few feet from the bridge were 
hanging ropes of rescue, and soon the doomed man 
came in sight. If there had been but one rope, or 
only two or three, he might have missed them and 
lost his Hfe over the falls below; but the way of 
danger was lined with the ropes of rescue, and so 
his peril was cut off and he was saved. Let us so 
train our churches that all the ropes will be down 
for the world's imperiled lost. In going after the 
lost we keep company with the Saviour, and will 
crown him King of kings and Lord of lords. 



IV 

FUNDAMENTALS OF EVANGELISM 

BY L. O. DAWSON, D. D, 



Delivered at the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, 
Louisville, Ky. 

One of the series of lectures on *' Evangelism " provided 
for by the Home Mission Board. 



IV 

FUNDAMENTALS OF EVANGELISM 

WHAT one considers as the basis of anything 
largely depends upon the point from which 
the subject is viewed. In the last analysis the funda- 
mentals of evangelism are to be found in God, in 
his nature, purpose, and will concerning us and 
his world; but I have thought best, in this address, 
to look into the heart of man himself, and see what 
things must enter therein before he can or will go 
out into the world with God's evangel to men. 

These things are not many, nor are they hard to 
find, for they shine out in the life and work of every 
true evangelist whom I know, or of whom I have 
read. 

There are many things an evangelist ought to 
have, but there are four things he must have, and 
any child of God who has them will be an evangelist 
in fact, whether he is one by name or not. One's 
zeal in the work will depend largely upon the in- 
tensity of these things in his soul. When they grow 
so strong as to drive him away from everything else 
to devote himself to rescue work alone, the man 
becomes what we technically know as an evangelist, 

^3 



64 Sane Bvanaelism 

I. The first of these fundamentals is a clear per- 
ception of human need. God's people are at ease 
in Zion because they have not stopped to think how- 
needy mankind is. We are content with the ordi- 
nary routine of church life and endeavor, or lack of 
endeavor, because we have never yet realized what 
it means in this world and in the next to be without 
God. 

What a hungry, helpless thing is the soul of man ! 
Gaunt and famine-stricken, from the cradle to the 
grave it strives, struggles, devours, and is as fam- 
ished at the end as in the beginning. The boy 
wanted first only a pocketful of marbles. When 
that was supplied he wanted another, then a ball, 
then a bat, then a mit and mask, then a bicycle, 
then a horse and buggy, then a house and lot, a 
" nest egg '' for a rainy day, a small farm, then 
the one joining that, and then the one joining that, 
till worn with anxiety, crushed by the care of what 
is already his, he dies of a broken heart striving to 
get something to feed his unsatisfied hunger. Alex- 
ander dies of a broken heart, crying for more. 
Caesar meets his death reaching out for a toy just be- 
yond his fingers. Modern Croesus, crushed by the 
weight of his gold, crushes out others yet that he 
may add their hoard to his already killing burden. 

Forgetting that I shared this longing nature of 
my fellows, I have ofttimes censured what seemed 
to me the unreasonable greed of their hearts. The 
thought was superficial. These, and you and I, 



jfunDamentals ot Bvanoelism 65 

may be fools in supposing that any earthly thing 
can satisfy that craving, but so far as the hunger 
itself is concerned it was put there by Him who made 
us. Our folly lies in seeking to satisfy it with saw- 
dust. The need of the soul is infinite, and God 
never intended that anything short of himself should 
fill it. All the world would leave us unsatisfied. 
Another still, and still another is too little, and were 
the universe ours, we would cry like children for 
more. '' Thou hast made us for thyself, O God, and 
uneasy lies the heart until it rests in thee ! " 

But to this recognition of our fellow-man's heart 
hunger must be added a wide-eyed vision of the 
actual presence and power and work of sin in his 
soul and in the world. As sure as you live, we need 
saner notions about sin. It is not a theory belong- 
ing to any book, or system of religion, or school of 
philosophy. It is an actual, living, present, work- 
ing, terribly working fact. It is keenly felt and can 
be clearly observed right now, to-day, in Louisville, 
and wherever humanity is found, and everywhere it 
is blistering, biting, blasting. It is in my heart and 
yours. Our neighbors feel it. The whole earth is, 
while I speak, groaning beneath its curse. Last 
night it slew a babe and brought another into the 
world to a life of misery. Less than five blocks 
from where I stand, in this direction or that, 
it has this day put out the light of hope in 
some heart, and turned the joy of life into the ashes 
of despair. It has this day made a demon out of a 



66 Sane Bvangelism 

father, a hag out of a mother, a tramp out of a son, 
and a prostitute out of a daughter. 

A glorious young friend of mine built up a splen- 
did business, an honor to him, a blessing to his 
family, an ornament to his city, and his pastor's 
peculiar joy and pride. But he has lost his business, 
his standing, his credit. His sweet young wife, 
brave as Julius Caesar, gives no sign of the terror 
that had seized her soul. His bright-eyed child still 
thinks " Father is the greatest man on earth." He 
himself still smiles in the same old way; but ruin, 
black ruin is already written over the door of his 
house, and sin did it. 

Sin has its slaves as truly as any master who ever 
lived; has them, and is this hour strengthening its 
hold upon them and binding yet others with the 
most galling fetters ever locked upon suffering men. 
Here in Louisville, perhaps in this room, are men 
and women harder driven by sin than any galley 
slave who ever pulled an oar for heartless masters. 

Sin, I repeat, is no mere theory or hypothesis. 
It is in the attic, but it is just as active in the palace 
on the avenue. Indeed, I sometimes think It ap- 
pears there in its most hopeless phases. It is not 
true that the churches are neglecting the poor and 
coddling the rich. The wretch In the brothel has a 
score of hands extended from this seminary to help, 
but that equally wretched one In the mansion, ex- 
posed to sin in some of its most deadly forms, is 
descending to hell by its quickest routes, and there 



jfun&amentals of jEvauQelism 67 

are none to help. If you tried, you could be of no 
assistance, because barricaded by pride and forti- 
fied by the liveried servants at the door you could 
not reach his ear, much less his heart. Missions 
to the slums are difficult, but often successful. Mis- 
sions on the avenue are unheard of, and practically 
impossible. 

In response to an appeal to her better nature a 
young friend of mine, beautiful, brilliant, and rich, 
looking out on life with great lustrous eyes, prom- 
ised me to give her heart to God and devote her 
splendid powers to his service. That was on Friday. 
Saturday, I received a note which said : '' I expected 
to join your church to-morrow, but circumstances 
which I cannot explain make it impossible." She 
had no need to explain. I knew. She is a woman 
now, still young, but a blase woman of the world. 
Her freshness has withered to cynicism. The light 
of her eye is brilliant still, but cold, without the 
softened glow born of faith in mankind and trust 
in God. She looks back on a wasted past and for- 
ward to a tasteless future, shivering at the thought. 
Sin killed that soul and embittered that sweet life 
and, while I speak, it is laying waste thousands of 
others. 

Sin is the great separating force of life, even as 
love is its binding power. The home is a happy 
unit till sin enters. Then husband is torn from wife, 
wife from husband; parents from children, and 
children from parents. Sin took the prodigal from 



6s Sane JEv^wQclism 

home to the distant pigsty, robbed David of Ab- 
salom, and will, unless you cast it out, destroy your 
home, slay your sons, and damn your daughters. 
Sin has divided and is dividing churches, neighbor- 
hoods, and nations. It makes it needful to organize 
armies, build navies, erect forts, and all too often 
plunges the world into the horrors of war, mean- 
time making the nations groan beneath the burden of 
their armaments. Worse than all, sin has separated, 
and is now estranging man from God. What the 
full meaning of this is we cannot now feel. The 
darkest hour this world has ever seen was when God 
hid his face from the dying Christ. The bitterest 
cry the world has ever heard was the " My God, my 
God, why hast thou forsaken me ? " The popular 
crowd left me at Capernaum. It mattered not. My 
best friends at the garden forsook me and fled, but 
I still had cheer; but now, O God, my God, thou 
hast left me. It was the separating power of sin. 
The burden of the world's guilt burst his great heart, 
and in that hour " He tasted death for every man/' 
And hell comes in with the thought that such 
separation is eternal. I do not know to what extent 
a man must believe in hell to make him an evangelist, 
but I do know that no man can have a full sense 
of the power of sin and the urgency of man's need 
who leaves this out of his mind. The thought of 
hell is horrible to me. I freely confess that I am 
afraid of it, save as Jesus Christ relieves my fear. 
Fire and brimstone would be a blessed luxury if we 



jfun&amentals ot Evauficlfsm 69 

bore only that and could get rid of the bitterness of 
soul one must experience in that awful state. I 
wish I could get hell out of my thought and out of 
my Bible, but the tenderest Teacher the world ever 
knew, put it there, and by the same process that 
eliminates hell, you can eliminate heaven or any- 
thing else from the Book. I do not pretend to say 
how much hell should enter a man's preaching. On 
looking back, I find that I myself have said but little 
about it. The apostles and sacred writers gen- 
erally dwelt not a great deal on the terrible topic, 
but knowing the terror of the Lord, they persuaded 
men, for 

The victim of a tyrant's power, 
Condemned in distant climes to roam, 

May sometimes find a happy hour 
In hope of pardon and of home. 

But what bright hour on him shall beam. 

Who, bearing an eternal curse, 
Is banished from his own esteem, 

To burning regions of remorse? 

Oh, that God might give us clearer notions of the 
nature, power, and actual presence of sin, that seeing 
the sinner's dire need, we might have at least this 
one thing needed to make evangeHsts of us all. 

II. It is not enough for us to be given that vision 
of a lost world. A man might be ever so cognizant 
of its dangers and misery, but if he knew of no way 



70 Sane Bvangelism 

to help he would put the thought away from his 
mind and hide his face from the sight. Many are 
doing just that to-day. To be a sure-enough 
evangelist one must believe to the very center of his 
being that he has a remedy to meet every possible 
demand of the soul. And let me say, that a man's 
power is just in proportion to his faith in the remedy 
he has to offer. A doubting preacher can never be a 
soul-winner. I know of no great evangelist who 
lacks this fundamental faith in the power of the 
cross. 

In reading Doctor Broughton's book, '' The Soul- 
winning Church,'' I was struck with this para- 
graph: "When I am brought to stand side by 
side with a poor sinner, when I see the tears run- 
ning down his cheeks, and hear him begging for 
salvation, I am so glad I can just stand there and 
know — not believe — but know that I have got a 
remedy that will save him on the spot." That's it. 
He has faith in his remedy. 

Grace is as real as sin. It is as actually present 
in Louisville and elsewhere as is sin. It is as ac- 
tively at work in the world as sin and, thank God, 
is infinitely more powerful. Let us declare it to the 
world, not as a theory, but as an actual, blessed 
fact. 

We all have the theory that the cross of Christ 
can save to the uttermost, but alas, there are persons 
in every community that somehow we do not expect 
to see saved. That Sunday-school girl can be saved. 



jfun&amentals of ]Evanaelism 71 

but her drunken father — well, we have a theory that 

he can be too — but . O my brothers, let us believe 

that there is no case on earth beyond the reach of 
the blood of Christ! An old evangelist once said, 
" I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ, for it is 
the power of God unto salvation to every one that 
beHeveth." 

No one, no, not one is beyond its reach. A friend 
of mine contracted the morphine habit. He saw the 
ruin into which he was plunged, and sought relief 
from every source known to him. He at last went 
to an old physician who believed in the power of 
his Lord. " Doctor," said the sufferer, '' I have 
only fifty dollars left in this world. I will gladly 
give it to you and as much more as I can get, if 
you will save me and my family from the ruin 
that awaits us.'' The old physician answered, 
" There is no help for you in mortal man. Only the 
great Physician can be of service to you. But he 
can and will save you." The poor wretch went 
away pondering these words. He was afraid to risk 
the needed surrender, but at last, in the fields one 
day, out of the pit he cried mightily to God, threw 
an unopened bottle of morphine as far as his 
strength could send it, and went back home a re- 
deemed man. When I last heard of him he was 
rejoicing in God and in a freedom severely tested, 
but found to be real. 

The use of drugs brings on bodily disease, and such 
a case as I have cited raises the question of miracu- 



72 Sane JBvanaelism 

lous physical healing in the twentieth century. It 
is an interesting and important topic, but we cannot 
enter its discussion here. The point I wish to im- 
press is that the old doctor had many remedies in 
whose power to help he had no faith, and therefore 
he failed to mention them. He would Hkewise 
have never mentioned this, had he not believed that 
Jesus Christ could save to the uttermost. That 
conviction made him to the extent of one man, at 
least, an evangelist of great power. 

I go further and say that if a man is to be a 
real evangelist of the cross he must believe that 
no remedy, save Christ alone, can reach the need of 
man, and not only so, but the blood of Christ alone. 
If one seeks to stay the tide of sin either in the in- 
dividual or in the race by education alone, he only 
magnifies the power of evil by putting a sharpened 
tool in its hands. If he seeks to repress it by law 
alone, behold, the law, its makers, and its executors, 
are full of error. If he preach Christ as a mere 
example, such an impossible altitude of virtue can 
only drive the sinner to despair. 

We hear men who have lost faith In the old 
gospel, talk much about an ethical revival, while 
day by day the best people in their communities 
go posting to ruin. There lies a poor man stung 
to his death by serpents. His physician sits by 
his side, and by way of cure reads him an essay on 
the optimism of Browning, or a treatise on some 
phase of science, or discusses the topics of the day, 



ifun&amentals of Bvangelism 73 

winding up with a parable on snakes, and drawing 
some beautiful lessons from the myths about sea- 
serpents. The patient with swollen tongue and 
bloodshot eyes writhes on to death, and the doctor 
should be hanged for murder. What success can 
crown the work, and what fate, think you, my 
brethren, waits the preacher who, in the presence of 
Satan's victims, tells pretty stories about the myths 
of Genesis, and standing upon an apologetic Bible 
bids the demon depart in the name of Wellhausen 
the Great? 

There will, indeed, be an ethical revival. We have 
seen it in Wales lately. We may see it now in India. 
I have seen it in Tuscaloosa, but back of the ethical 
revival there is always a revival of " Holy Ghost 
religion " — a quickening from the dead, an imparta- 
tion of life from which old sins and habits fall away 
'' as winter leaves before the rising sap of spring.'' 
There are men who preach this ethical religion, but 
I know of no great evangelist who ever did believe 
or who now believes it possible to save the soul by 
any other power than the blood of Christ. 

III. And now hear this : Few, if any, can or will 
go any great length in this rescue work who are 
not conscious of a power outside of themselves to 
apply this remedy to the souls of men, I confess I 
have but little faith in the boasted knowledge and 
reason of man. I preach twice each Sunday to 
audiences whose culture compares favorably with 
that of any which gathers between the seas. I do, 



74 Cane Evanaelism 

indeed, try to appeal to their better judgment and 
sober reason. But there are those there, and like- 
wise among those to whom you preach, who know 
the truth of what we say, and who know the course 
pursued by them leads right on to quick destruction. 
They see it, feel it, maybe shudder at the thought, 
and then rise up to sin yet more earnestly. No word 
of ours, no father's advice, no mother's entreaty can 
save them. Unless a supernatural power convicts 
them of sin, locks them up with their guilt, breaks 
their hearts and at last gives them peace, they are 
lost and go rushing on to eternal death with wide- 
open eyes. 

I am aware of the modern effort to eliminate 
the supernatural from the Bible. There are those 
who think this needful to make the book agree 
with certain scientific hypotheses. Now, I love sci- 
ence for the sake of the good it has done, and is 
doing. I forgive its mistakes ; but the preacher will 
have a hard time who is trying to keep his theology 
in touch with the kaleidoscopic changes of science; 
and if he is not ready to accept the miraculous ele- 
ment of the Scriptures, he will merely waste his time 
if he seeks to explain it away. He might as well 
reject the whole Bible and be done with it. The 
book IS saturated with miracles from beginning 
to end. 

Certain I am that without that supernatural force, 
without that extra-self power for which the disciples 
tarried at Jerusalem, we might as well surrender the 



jfun&amentals ot £vanQclism 75 

whole Christian propaganda. We are left helpless 
in the presence of problems that not only perplex, 
but baffle. 

We stand with breaking hearts on the brink of 
the world's Niagara of woe, powerless to help. Let 
Peter go a-fishing, and let James and John and 
Andrew toil with him at the nets. Let Matthew 
return to the lucrative seat of customs, let Judas 
wisely invest his thirty pieces of silver, and let 
us all return to farm and store and office to make 
most of the passing day. The current is too strong 
for unaided human power. So far from helping, 
we must ourselves be drawn into its torrent and 
swept out into hopeless, starless night! 

If we are denied the power and guidance of the 
Holy Spirit, I can name a score of difficulties, any 
one of which will doom the Christian enterprise in 
whole and in its parts to certain failure. We are 
bidden to pluck up the Rocky Mountains and build 
a trunk line across the Atlantic. We cannot do it 
alone, and he who gives the command mocks our 
weakness. But such a task is easy, compared to 
the evangelization of the w^orld without some power 
outside of the preacher to apply to the soul the 
remedy of the cross. We want the best brain and 
brawn on earth to bear the message of Christ to the 
world. We want money to back the enterprise, but 
all the men and all the money are not equal to the 
salvation of one soul, and shall we then be expected 
to make disciples of all the lations? Nay, verily! 



76 Sane Bvanaellsm 

That which gives the evangeHst hope, and makes 
him pour out his soul in the effort to accompHsh an 
impossible task, is the knowledge that he is not 
alone, that there is One leading and guiding him, 
One who can and will unlock the barred and bolted 
heart, bring the man face to face with his guilt, break 
his heart, compel his conscience, and then reveal 
Jesus to him as Lord and Saviour. 

Granted this power, difficulties become as though 
they were not. Take a hasty glance at the Acts 
of the Apostles. The whole book is one triumphal 
song. On every page are battle and victory, battle 
and victory. Not a minor chord, not a disheartened 
preacher, not a discouraged church, not a single soul 
saying, ''It can't be done.'' And why not? If 
there were mountains of difficulties there was One 
with them who could pluck them up and cast them 
into the sea. What if they were thrown into prison? 
They had One with them who could use an earth- 
quake as a key to open any dungeon on earth. What 
if now and again they received forty stripes save 
one? He that went with them could bring the 
persecutor to their feet begging for salvation, and 
make him gently wash the stripes he had made in 
their quivering flesh. What if the south wind, 
softly blowing, should deceive the master of the ship 
and tempt him out to treacherous seas ? They knew 
of Him who could harness the tempest to the vessel 
and hasten his servant on to preach his gospel in 
the household of the Caesars. 



3fun5ameiital6 ot Bvanaelism 77 

The greatest discovery of science is the very 
fact of law in the universe. I rejoice in those laws 
— the discovered and the undiscovered. I know 
too, that God is not going to set aside his laws to suit 
the whims of every praying child of his. But who 
knows all there is in the mind of God ? Is there not a 
higher law controlling all other laws? Early navi- 
gators delared, to the loss of their reputation for 
veracity, that they saw icebergs in Davis Strait 
floating against the current. But it became known 
later that there was a counter current beneath, 
stronger than the one on the surface into which the 
icebergs sank and so were borne naturally along in 
an apparently unnatural way. 

Ought we not to be less pompous and cock-sure 
when we talk about what is normal and abnormal? 
May it not be true that much of the miraculous of 
God's word is miraculous to us simply because we 
do not know all ? A chip bearing a written message 
from a missionary to his wife is a miracle, a wonder, 
to the unlettered savage who carries it, but is noth- 
ing unusual to the writer or the reader. A preacher 
was once declaring the folly of experimental religion 
to an interested audience. After proving that no 
such thing existed, and inviting any one who wished 
to express his views, he sat down amid profound 
silence. No one else speaking, an old darky finally 
rose in the back of the house and said, " I is been 
greatly intrusted in what de preacher hab saw fit to 
say to-night, but hit seem ter me lack he is lef out 



73 Sane Evangelism 

one t'ing. He should hab orter say, ' Der ain't no 
sich thing as 'sperimental 'Hgion, so fur ez he 
knows.' '' So far as we know, so far as we know ; 
and how short the vision of the wisest is ! 

Beloved, I do know this : Above all law stands 
this law, that God will assign no task without giving 
power to accomplish it, and that no soul shall ever 
cry in vain to him for help. Have you heard the 
news from India? Pentecost is being repeated there 
on an enlarged scale. Out of a mass of material I 
select this news note from Cawnpore : 

It was clear to the human leaders in the work that the 
Captain of our Salvation had taken the case into his own 
hands and was directing affairs. There were pungent con- 
viction, startling and awe-inspiring manifestation of the 
personality of God, transformation of character and life, 
the sweeping aside of what seemed impossible barriers, the 
drawing in of unexpected and unthought-of converts. 
From the first, it was clearly a supernatural work. It was 
the supernatural which attracted, awed, and won men and 
women. There was such sudden and real manifestation of 
God to men's spirits as carried them out of themselves, that 
is, their controlling consciousness of physical surroundings 
— and led to marked, abandoned manifestations of penitence, 
of awe, of joy. If these manifestations were less demon- 
strative than in some other cases they were none the less 
real and soul-absorbing. 

" The ear of the Lord is not deaf, that it cannot 
hear." " The arm of the Lord is not shortened, 
that it cannot save." ** Nothing is hard for Je- 
hovah!" 



ifun&anientals ot Evangelism 79 

I dwell on this, for I verily believe it is here 
we break down. We have a theory that God can 
do anything, but we limit him in what he is likely to 
do. I tell you we need to reassure our hearts with 
the thought that God Almighty is the All Mighty 
God. He is not tied down by the laws of nature. 
He is not hopelessly locked up in laws of his own 
making. Last summer, in Florence, Ala., an ice-man 
was accidentally locked in the ice-room of the fac- 
tory. They found him next morning, his brain 
frozen, his face pressed to the bottom of the door 
where he had vainly struggled for air and called for 
help. But God is not so locked in the heart of his 
own machine. He can and will do his work, and if 
need be to accomplish it, he will divide the sea, com- 
mand the sun to stand still upon Gibeon, and in 
Aijalon's valley will stay the moon till his holy will 
is wrought. 

At the basis of every great evangelist's work, you 
will find the firm conviction that in the Holy Spirit 
there are guidance and power, extra and super- 
natural, to guarantee the working of the remedy 
which he ofifers the sinner. 

IV. Much more briefly, let me speak of what 
seems to me the other remaining fundamental thing 
in evangelism. One might be ever so convinced of 
the world's need and danger, he might be ever so 
sure of the efficacy of a given remedy and of God's 
power to apply it, but for many reasons he might 
fail to go to the rescue of a dying world. He 



So Sane BvauQelism 

needs to have added to his soul a sufficient motive. 
Then he goes forth of necessity. He cannot do 
otherwise. 

That motive may be largely humanitarian in its 
nature. Doubtless it will be, for who can look on 
the suffering of the world without being moved to 
pity? Who, knowing a remedy, could withhold it? 
The mere desire to relieve some one m^an has led 
many people to great and noble effort; but this 
alone is not enough. It breaks down when the men 
for whom we work seem worthless, and the degen- 
erate human animal often seems to be the most 
worthless thing on God's footstool. The motive, 
strong and noble as it is, breaks down again when 
the most exhausting and exhaustive effort seems to 
avail nothing, and oftener still does it fail when the 
people for whom one labors prove ungrateful, when 
they return curses for prayers and blows for bless- 
ings. I have known some of the most exalted 
humanitarians throw down their work in disgust 
when they were misunderstood, and their motives 
misinterpreted and maligned. 

When obstacles grow stronger than motive, the 
work always ceases, and many obstacles are stronger 
than humanitarianism. I recall how in my semi- 
nary days, the superintendent of our mission would 
lay out on Saturday night certain districts we were 
to visit next afternoon. One of the workers with a 
warm and generous heart was eager for the work. 
He began with enthusiasm, but the experiences of 



jfun&amentals ot iBvanQcUsm 8i 

the first day staggered him. The next Sunday made 
matters worse. He sickened of the enterprise. He 
balked. He quit. His motive was too weak. The 
root of the matter was not in him. When obstacles 
grow strong enough where he now labors, he will 
quit again. 

There is but one motive that balks at no difficulty. 
It is love for our Lord, such love that makes it the 
meat and bread of the soul to do his will. When our 
Lord would launch that tremendous campaign for 
the conquest of the world he organized no armies, 
built no navies, and gathered no treasures. He 
found a lone fisherm.an, weak and rash, without 
learning, influence, or wealth, and withal discredited 
in his own eyes and in the thought of all others 
who knew of a certain shameful event in his life. 
" Simon, son of Jonas, lovest thou me more than 
these?" The man's history might have made him 
hesitate. It evidently did make him forego any 
comparisons or measurements, but he challenged the 
omniscient eye to search him to the center of his 
soul. " Lord, thou knowest all things. Thou know- 
est my shame and the weakness that made it pos- 
sible, but search my heart and at the seat of its life, 
in its inmost sanctuary you will find your image.'' 
" It is enough," said Christ. And it was enough, 
for that love would make his soul, and all others 
like him, restless so long as one knee failed to bow, 
or one tongue refused to acknowledge him as Lord 
of all. 

F 



82 Sane Evangelism 

No obstacle can overtop that motive. If ingrati- 
tude and persecution repay love and blessings, it re- 
calls him who likewise bore it and faltered not. And 
nothing in man can sink him to worthlessness whom 
the Lord loves and for whom he died. I once heard 
a man say that a little brother of his had an old 
dog that was an all-round nuisance to the family, 
and an '' abomination of desolation forever standing 
where it ought not." But the little fellow's soul 
was knit to the canine friend, and nothing could 
induce him to part from it. Finally, the boy sick- 
ened and died. His last words to those who bent 
over him were, " Take good care of my dog/' 
Take care of him? Why, sirs, from that hour the 
worthless brute was a thing hallowed and set apart. 
Love did it. 

O Master mine, there are souls here in Louis- 
ville and elsewhere that seem of little worth to us, 
yet thou dost love them, and by that token we will 
love them too. Give thou the power, and we will 
stretch out to them our arms, take them to our 
hearts and give them back to thee ! 



V 

NEW TESTAMENT EVANGELISM 

BY B. H. CARROLL, D. D., LL. D., 



Delivered at the Chattanooga session of the Southern 
Baptist Convention. 

The question under consideration at the Southern Baptist 
Convention, at Chattanooga, Tenn., being report of the 
Special Committee on Evangelism, Dr. B. H. Carroll de- 
livered the following address. 



V 

NEW TESTAMENT EVANGELISM 

IF a blind man would see a phenomenon, its prop- 
erties must be sufficiently phenomenal to vis- 
ually impress even his sightless orbs. If a deaf man 
would hear a discussion, it must be one of such 
clearness and power as to make him at least feel 
the vibrations of the thunders he cannot hear. 

This deaf man came to the mass meeting yester- 
day afternoon to hear, and, if need be, to participate 
in such a discussion on the evangelist report pending 
before this Convention. But his surprise was painful 
to learn that while the boys w^ere permitted to take a 
swim on this subject, they were not allowed to go 
near the water. They must content themselves with 
a dry polish. They might, indeed, amuse themselves 
with academic discussions of vague abstractions and 
generalities, but as it was Sunday, if they ventured 
to approach the practical, concrete work of our 
Lord, recommended in the report, then procul, 0, 
procul este profani! 

If it had not been so pitiful, it would have been 
amusing to see such men of affairs, such doers of 
God's word, such exponents of practical Christian 
work, as occupied this platform yesterday afternoon, 

85 



86 Sane Bvangelism 

constrained by Convention interdict to steer the big 
ships of their speeches away from the direct course 
leading to a definite port, and to merely circle 
around and lose themselves in befogged and un- 
charted seas. 

It certainly was a sight to see such mighty 
engineers instructed : " You may get up steam and 
whistle as loud and as long as you please, but you 
are estopped from sawing logs." 

Any one who knows the great commoner from 
my own State could see how restive and embar- 
rassed he was by the extraordinary restrictions im- 
posed. And thus the great opportunity for deliber- 
ation on a definite report passed away — swift and 
returnless. 

Brother President, the Sabbath was made for 
man, and not man for the Sabbath, and therefore the 
Son of man is Lord also of the Sabbath Day. It is 
lawful to do good on the Sabbath Day. If we 
scruple not every year from ten thousand pulpits 
to discuss every phase of the reports of our three 
great Boards, and to take up collections for the 
respective departments of work entrusted to them, 
it could not have been very far out of the way to 
discuss this report Sunday afternoon in a mass 
meeting. 

The work was strictly religious, it was the Lord's 
work, and as holy as the day. On account of these 
scruples, however, we now, without due deliberation, 
must, in a few cramped minutes, dispose, by vote, 



512 ew Testament Evangelism 87 

of one of the mightiest and most far-reaching meas- 
ures ever submitted to this body. And yet certain 
supreme antecedent questions must be answered be- 
fore we can reach an intelHgent decision. These 
questions are: 

1. What is an evangeHst as distinguished from 
other preachers? 

2. Is it a scriptural office and intended for perma- 
nent service in the kingdom of God? 

3. Are there in the Scripture records unmistak- 
able examples of evangelists, whose lives and labors 
illustrate the work of this office? 

4. What specific parts of the New Testament 
treat of this office, and tell us of the men who 
filled it, and the work they did? 

5. From these Scriptures what are the peculiar 
functions of this office, and what the qualifications 
of the men who fill it? 

6. Are there in Baptist history experiments on 
this line to which we may confidently appeal for 
justification in entertaining the recommendations of 
this report? 

These antecedent questions having been fairly 
answered, we will have the office itself outlined 
by clear scriptural definition. From the same holy 
book we will have before us living examples which 
illustrate it. Then, also, from our own history 
will stand out before us actual experiments that 
demonstrate the feasibility and profit of employing 
such men. 



88 Sane Evanaelism 

Patrick Henry said : " I have no lamp by which 
my feet are guided but the lamp of experience." It 
becomes a Christian to say, rather : " I have no 
lamp by which my feet are guided but the lamp of 
God's word/' But if to the word, we add also the 
experiment, then may we know that our theory of 
the word has justified itself in the fact. 

The conservative men of this Convention will not 
be disposed to adopt any rash or ill-advised ex- 
periment on grounds of mysticism or mere senti- 
ment. Baptists delight to feel under their feet the 
impregnable rock of the Holy Scriptures. As this is 
to me no nev/ question, I may venture to answer, in 
some fashion, the antecedent questions propounded, 
which unanswered bar the way to intelligent de- 
cision. To the law then, and to the testimony. 

Foremost of all the passages in God's word, I 
cite the pregnant paragraph in the fourth chapter 
of the letter to the Ephesians, extending from the 
fourth verse to the sixteenth, inclusive. Here are 
set forth the great unities: One Lord, one faith, 
one baptism, one body, one spirit, one work. For 
the preservation of these unities, our Lord himself, 
when he ascended into heaven, gave gifts unto men. 
These gifts v/ere distinct and varied. But all had 
the same general object in view, and all were neces- 
sary to the complete attainment of that object. Five 
distinct gifts are here mentioned, namely, apostles, 
prophets, evangelists, pastors, and teachers. And 
if the first two, whose credentials and powers were 



IRew XTestament jEv^anaeltsm 89 

extraordinary, must cease, with the completion of 
the canon of the Scriptures, and with the accrediting 
of the church and the laying of the foundations once 
for all (see i Cor. 12, 13, and 14; and Eph. 
2 : 20), certainly the other three must abide till the 
Master comes. 

Apostles and prophets have fulfilled their mission, 
but evangelists, pastors, and teachers remain. These 
terms — apostles, prophets, evangelists, pastors, and 
teachers — are not rhetorical variations of the same 
idea. We are well able, from the Scriptures, to dis- 
tinguish the evangelist from all the others. Evan- 
gelist and pastor, for example, mean not the same 
thing. A great evangehst may prove to be a poor 
pastor, and a great pastor may prove to be a poor 
evangelist. This is often seen. But it is scripturally 
true, and true in fact that one man may be endowed 
with several gifts. Hence we sornetimes find a great 
pastor, who is also a great evangelist when occasion 
calls him for the time being into that work. 

In distinguishing, we may drive down the first 
peg: The work of the-pastor is local; the work of 
the evangelist is general. The pastor must mainly 
look after the one flock over which the Holy Ghost 
has made him bishop ; the evangelist looks out over a 
larger field in which may be many churches and 
wide stretches of destitution without churches. 

But the evangelist is not a free lance, self-ap- 
pointed to range at his own sweet will and for his 
own ends over boundless and unfenced pastures. 



90 Sane Evangelism 

He too, as well as apostles and pastors, zvas set in 
the church (i Cor. 12 : 28). His work also must 
tend to preserve the holy unities. The mightiest ex- 
ercise of his power comes into play when for pur- 
poses of co-operation an effort is made to elicit, 
combine, and wisely direct the energies and re- 
sources of many churches in great undertakings 
for the kingdom. 

It would richly repay every member of this Con- 
vention to study profoundly this paragraph in the 
letter to the Ephesians. From it most clearly 
appear the objects of all the gifts: "And he gave 
some to be apostles, and some prophets, and some 
evangelists, and some pastors and teachers; for the 
perfecting of the saints, unto the work of minister- 
ing, unto the building up of the body of Christ, till 
we all attain unto the unity of the faith, and of the 
knowledge of the Son of God, unto a full-grown man, 
unto the measure of the stature of the fulness of 
Christ, that we may be no longer children, tossed 
to and fro and carried about with every wind of 
doctrine by the sleight of men, in craftiness, after 
the wiles of error, but speaking truth in love may 
grow up in all things unto him, who is the head, 
even Christ, from whom all the body, fitly framed 
and knit together through that which every joint 
supplieth, according to the working in due measure 
of each several part, maketh the increase of the body 
unto the building up of itself in love." 

Just here we may drive down another peg : The 



5Rew Testament lEvangelfsm 91 

work of an evangelist is far more than merely 
holding protracted meetings : Soul-winning or soul- 
saving is a part, indeed, but not all. See how 
much of it, in this passage, relates to the saint, to 
convert-culture, to sound doctrine, to development 
of the church. But let us look next at scriptural 
examples. In Acts 21 : 8 we learn that Paul and 
his party were at Csesarea entertained in the home 
of Philip the evangelist, who had been one of the 
seven Jerusalem deacons. The eighth chapter of 
the Acts gives some account of his evangelical work 
in Samaria, in the desert toward Gaza and along 
the Mediterranean coast line up to Caesarea. The 
churches found there by Peter (Acts 9 : 23-43), 
and probably those found by Paul higher up this 
coast at Ptolemais and Tyre (Acts 21 : 3-7), were 
established by Philip. Samaria, therefore, the desert 
toward Egypt, and all the eastern shore of the Great 
Sea, perpetuate the memory and fame of this mighty 
evangelist. Study the life of this truly great man. 
In Philip's case the soul-winning element predom- 
inates. But there is another illustrious example. 
Paul writes to Timothy (2 Tim. 4 : 5) : "Do the 
work of an evangelist." Here the context very 
clearly sets forth the nature of the work: "I 
charge thee in the sight of God, and of Christ Jesus, 
who shall judge the living and the dead, and by 
his appearing and his kingdom, preach the word, be 
urgent in season, out of season, reprove, rebuke, 
exhort with all longsuffering and teaching. For 



92 Sane JEvanselism 

the time Vx^ill come when they will not endure the 
sound doctrine; but, having itching ears, will heap 
to themselves teachers after their own lusts, and 
will turn away their ears from, the truth, and turn 
aside unto fables/' Compare this with these words 
of the first letter '' As I exhorted thee to tarry 
at Ephesus, when I was going into Macedonia, that 
thou mightest charge certain men not to teach a 
different doctrine, neither to give heed to fables and 
endless genealogies, which minister questionings 
rather than a dispensation of God which is in faith, 
so do I now/' and " these things write I unto thee, 
hoping to come unto thee shortly; but if I tarry 
long, that thou mayest know how men ought to be- 
have themselves in the house of God, which is the 
church of the living God, the pillar and ground of 
the truth." From these passages and their context 
it will appear how much the evangelist had to do 
with sound doctrine and church order. But this 
case is the more valuable from the fact that Timothy 
was only one of many who, under Paul's directions, 
were doing the work of an evangelist. 

All that group of brilliant young men that con- 
stituted the staff of Paul were evangelists, not 
pastors. What a galaxy of stars are here : Barna- 
bas, Mark, Luke, Silas, Timothy, Titus, Tychicus, 
Trophimus, Aristarchus, Erastus, Epaphras, Gains, 
Clement, Tertius, Jason, Sosipater, Justus, Cres- 
cens, Epaphroditus, Achaicus, Stephanas, Fortu- 
natus, Apollos, and many others, were evangelists 



5I2ew Testament Evanaelism 93 

pure and simple. If matters went wrong at Ephesus, 
he left Timothy there to right them. For setting in 
order the affairs in Crete, he left Titus there. 

The letters to Timothy and Titus were addressed 
to evangelists. Paul's other letters bristle with 
references to evangelists and their work. His soul 
ever leaps out to them. When away he yearns for 
their coming ; when present his heart takes courage. 
Lonely in cold, polished Athens, he urges them to 
rejoin him. Their coming to him at Corinth con- 
strains him to speak out more boldly. He writes: 
'' At Troas I had no relief from my spirit, because I 
found not Titus my brother." And how he glories 
when Titus rejoins him at Philippi, with joyful tid- 
ings (2 Cor. 7 : 13, 14). 

Again we hear him : '* I am glad of the coming 
of Stephanas and Fortunatus and Achaicus." And 
yet again : Tychicus, Aristarchus, Marcus, Justus, 
Epaphras, '' these are my fellow-workers in the 
kingdom of God, who have been a comfort to me." 
And again : '' Demas hath forsaken me, having 
loved this present world; Crescens has gone to 
Galatia; Titus unto Dalmatia; only Luke is with 
me ; bring Mark to me ; Erastus abode at Corinth ; 
Trophimus have I left at Miletus sick." 

Like a general surveying a hazardous battlefield 
or a wide-spread tactical campaign, his rapid mes- 
sages send them here, there, and yonder. Here a 
church is in disorder, there a mighty collection must 
be engineered, yonder a frightful heresy is spread- 



94 Sane Bpangeliam 

ing, and so he scattered them abroad to the ends of 
the earth. Another time with Hghtning speed they 
are regathered and massed in some great city, some 
Gibraltar of hell, some seat of Satan, that can be 
conquered only by concentration and combination 
of power. 

Ah, shall we never learn the economy and power 
of massing for the time being our forces and 
energies against some key position, some strategic 
point, where one victory means a thousand ! 

The secretary of our Home Board may dare to 
conduct the wide-spread and complicated campaign 
entrusted to him, without evangelist coadjutors, 
but the Apostle Paul would not have so dared. 

Brethren, if you want a just conception of the 
office of the evangelist, study the story of Paul's 
companions as set forth in the Acts and the Epistles. 
That study will, indeed, emphasize the soul-winning 
feature of the evangelistic office, but oh, how much 
more than this will it disclose. Von Moltke might 
as well attempt to mobilize an army of a million 
men, transport them, feed them, clothe them, muni- 
tion them, fight them without an efficient general 
staff as our Home Board can hope fully to elicit, 
combine, and direct the mighty energies and forces 
of this Convention without evangelist coadjutors. 

The necessity in our case is even greater, because 
we have no iron organization and must rely ex- 
clusively upon moral suasion and voluntary co- 
operation. 



aiew Testament jEvangelism 95 

From the Scriptures cited it is evident that the 
office of evangeHst was higher in importance than 
that of pastor. The New Testament gives the 
names of ten evangehsts where it mentions the name 
of one pastor. The twelve apostles were but evan- 
gelists until after the resurrection of Jesus. The 
seventy were all evangelists. The work of awaken- 
ing, firing, and developing whole sections was 
evangelistic. In one sense, of course, the evangelist 
was a missionary. But you may have the missionary 
apart from the evangelist. {The missionary may be 
as local as a pastor. ^^-a^' 

The evangelist comes in on all general work 
where education and organization and co-operation 
are needed on broad lines. They are essential to 
the unification and fusing of many local or church 
forces looking to a kingdom or a denominational 
campaign. The larger the campaign, the more 
numerous the units to be harmonized, the more de- 
sirable a general co-operation, the more varied the 
interests involved, the more complicated the prob- 
lems, by that much more you need evangelists. 
They serve all the purposes that a general stafif, a 
flying column and a reserve column, serve for an 
army. They must be available for any special need 
in any part of a great field of operations. 

As the Twelve when they returned from their first 
evangelistic campaign reported to Jesus " whatso- 
ever they had done, and whatsoever they had 
taught/^ so an evangelistic column not only fre- 



9^ Sane Bv^anaelism 

quently reports to the chosen leader of the whole 
campaign, but should particularly report their teach- 
ing, which is far more important than the miles 
traveled, sermons preached, prayer meetings and 
Sunday-schools organized. 

Teaching power of a high order and a sound 
order is indispensable in an evangelist. The very 
greatest men in our denomination should be evan- 
gelists, and not all the greatness on one line, either. 
The mountain evangelist might not suit New 
Orleans and vice versa. The evangelist to German 
populations might not suit the Mexican population. 
Again I repeat, study the work of Paul's general 
staff of young men who aided him in campaigns 
covering two continents and many nations, until you 
are imbued and saturated with the evangelist idea. 

Here in one Convention are over half the Baptists 
of the world. '' To elicit, combine, and direct '' 
these vast forces and varied resources is a work 
calling for the strongest organization, the widest 
co-operation possible to churches independent of 
each other, and governed by the voluntary principle 
only. 

To employ men of this character and quality and 
enough of them is economy pure and simple. As 
our people once blindly walked over and underesti- 
mated land rich with mineral ore, so now for lack 
of developing investment^ our mightiest religious 
resources are only latent. 

There remains of the antecedent questions only 



I^ew Testament JBvanQclism 97 

one: Are there in Baptist history experiments on 
this Hne that will justify our adoption of the recom- 
mendations of this report? In Texas, Brother 
President, this question is not debatable. It is res 
adjudicata. For three years I urged our State 
Board to employ mighty evangelists, whatever the 
cost. The appointment of the first one was only 
secured when I became personally responsible for his 
salary. Now we would not dream of conducting 
a great campaign without them. Out there we 
know what an evangelist is. An eccentric old 
gentleman of Georgia was accustomed to frequent 
the office of a great jurist. One day he said: 
" Judge, IVe struck a hard word here in the paper. 
I don't know how to call it, nor what it means." 
" Spell it out,'' said the judge. " Well, it's P-h-e 
(Fe) n-o (no) m-e (me) n-a (nar) — Phe-no-me-na 
— now, what is that?" "You are one," said the 
judge. So if you ask, " What is an evangelist? " my 
reply is. The chairman of this evangelist com- 
mittee — he is one.^ 

I may not becomingly refer to cases in your 
States, with which you are more familiar than I am. 
But I can cite cases in Texas. Every year, with us, 
we bottom our great enterprises upon the power of 
evangelism. The mighty streams of Texas con- 
tributions flow from rocks smitten by the rod of the 
evangelist. We have long since ceased to expect 

1 The speaker here refers to Dr. George W. Truett, who was not 
chairman of the committee. 
G 



93 Sane Bvangelism 

money from cold-steel agencies. Dry bones do not 
live till they are breathed upon by the omnific Spirit. 
The mighty contributions from the persecuted and 
poverty-stricken Philippians did not come until 
'^ they first gave themselves to the Lord." 

The sense of the responsibility of stewards, the 
consecration of self and all one has to the service 
of the Lord, must precede intelligent, sufficient, 
and loving contribution. When a man, sir, comes 
before the rich, not as a fawning beggar, but as an 
evangelist, instructed by the apostle of our Lord, 
" Put them on oath before God that are rich in this 
present world, that they be not high-minded, nor 
have their hope set on the uncertainty of riches, but 
on God, who giveth us richly all things to enjoy ; that 
they do good, that they be rich in good works, that 
they be ready to sympathize, willing to contribute, 
laying up in store for themselves a good foundation 
against the time to come, that they may lay hold on 
the life which is life indeed '^ — when he stands there 
with streaming eyes and says, " I am nothing, count 
me as less than nothing, but O rich man, I lay a 
Lazarus at thy gate; yea, in this case our own 
Lord himself knocks at thy door of plenty, foot- 
sore, weary, cold, hungry, naked, shelterless " — then 
the rock rends and the fountain of contribution is 
unsealed ; it leaps, it sparkles, it sings, it outflows. 

It is worth a trip across a continent to attend one 
Texas evangelistic meeting. Every year we have 
them. Our strongest men gather at them and co- 



Slew TIestament Bvanaelfsm 99 

labor and pray. Allow me to tell you of the Sky- 
Pilot of Madera Canon. Far west in Texas, where 
the Sunset and Texas & Pacific Railways begin 
to converge toward their junction at Sierra Blanca, 
there midway between the converging lines, in 
the Madera Mountains, in a narrow cafion, 
once the stronghold of the Comanche Indians, 
from which in my boyhood we vainly tried to 
drive them, there every year the cattlemen of 
the West gather from far and near. The tent 
of salvation is stretched on the site of the wig- 
wam, and ''Jesus, Lover of My Soul,'', supplants 
the warwhoop. From Boston, from Chicago, from 
Oklahoma, Arizona, New Mexico, from Monterey 
and Chihuahua of Old Mexico, from points on the 
Texas & Pacific intermediate between Dallas and 
El Paso, from the stations on the Sunset between 
San Antonio and Sierra Blanca they come. Great 
trains of wagons and hacks and horses, from all 
the big ranches within a radius of one hundred miles 
converge to the focus, lighting up the mountainsides 
with their camp-fires and breaking the eternal silence 
of nature or competing with the howls of coyotes by 
their songs, making melody in the night 

Stockmen worth millions gather on the boulders 
with their cowboys and hold their prayer meetings. 
O ye men of cities with stilted services, you should 
hear these prayers ! And then the preaching, so 
direct, so tender, so full of faith ! Behold one scene : 
A group of cowboys have ridden twenty miles to 



loo Sane 3E\>angelism 

be present half a day. We meet them : " Have you 
come to be saved?'' "Sure thing!'' they reply. 
" But it must be done mighty quick ; we start home 
at daylight." One service is sufficient. They hear ; 
we pray ; they are saved. That same night the whole 
camp gathers where we have dammed up the moun- 
tain stream ; one thousand five hundred feet high on 
either hand the precipitous sides of the canon 
overhang. The full moon, in the meridian at mid- 
night, looks down and glasses itself in the baptismal 
waters which catch its sheen and ripple with smiles 
at its image. As ancient Israel responded the bless- 
ings and curses of the law from Ebal to Gerizim, so 
our choir, distributed on the opposing mountain- 
sides throw back and forth to each other the paeans 
of salvation while we baptize them. And the moun- 
tain stream, in which trout yet leap and Indian 
maidens bathed not long ago, that stream becomes 
the monument, as its waters part, that carries up 
stairways of starlight and moonlight this story of 
hope to the disembodied saints in heaven : O spirits 
of the just made perfect, ye shall not wait forever 
for glorification; there shall be a resurrection of 
the dead! Years after such a meeting you may 
secure contributions in thousands by a word. 

We mass the forces and hold similar meetings in 
rich blackland districts, long frozen spiritually by 
the death-chilling spirit of antinomianism and anti- 
missionism. In the glowing fervor of spiritual 
power the frost-bound souls are thawed, and where 



Mew XTestament BvauQelism loi 

once were suspicion and gangrene and know- 
nothingism, now are words of cheer and hands of 
help for the work of this Convention. 

I was the honored guest of a rich man, who 
more than once had extended sympathy and help 
to the cause I represented. He is a great man of 
afifairs. His mind absorbed in mighty enterprises, 
he found little time for spiritual things. '* My 
friend/' said I, '' if you ever thought well of me, 
and now would be good to yourself, drop all your 
business; get up a camping outfit; start to-morrow 
with your family and friends to the Palo Pinto 
camp meeting. Stay there to the final benediction.' 
And if your soul is not overwhelmed with a blessing 
I will never prescribe for you again." He went. 
He stayed. He has not yet found places to store 
away all the rich blessing God showered upon him. 

Brethren, is it sin to love this Southland more 
than other lands? From the haze of her great, 
smoky mountains to her tidewater districts on gulf 
and ocean, may not all of it be very dear to us with- 
out disparagement of other lands? It is a battle- 
scarred cemetery of memory and tears — a land of 
sorrows. Barred out from many former roads of 
ambition and promotion, cloud-covered with im- 
minent future hazards, it is yet God's resurrection 
country, land of destiny and of glorious opportunity, 
habitat of sound doctrine and home of revivals; 
shall we not make it the world's vanguard of pure 
and undefiled religion, the firing-line of world-wide 



I02 Sane Bvanoelism 

evangelism ? If, indeed, like Judea of old, this land 
has a mission of religion that shall touch eternal 
shores, who of us would not ^' live and die for 
Dixie"? 

In that direction points this report. I could 
wish, indeed, to recast some of its verbiage if time 
permitted recommitment. But we may take it as it 
is. The root of the matter is in it. Following its 
index finger lies the highway of usefulness for the 
Atlanta Board. The necessity for that Board is a 
thousandfold greater now than when this Conven- 
tion was organized, in 1845. Carry out the pro- 
visions of that report wisely, and this Board can 
raise a half-million dollars annually as easily as this 
Convention could adopt a perfunctory and innocu- 
ous resolution. Let us give the report a rousing, 
unanimous indorsement. The bedrock of Scripture 
underlies it. Experience demonstrates its wisdom 
and feasibility. If the Home Board may employ 
any man, it may employ evangelists. Altogether, 
then, with a ring, let us support this measure. If 
I were the secretary of this Board I would come 
before this body in humility and tears and say: 
" Brethren, give me evangelists. Deny not fins 
to things that must swim against the tide, nor wings 
to things that must fly against the wind." 



VI 



HOW THE AVERAGE PASTOR MAY MAKE 

THE REGULAR SERVICE AN 

EVANGELISTIC FORCE 



BY E, C. DARGAN, D. D. 



This is the substance of an address given before the 
Southern Baptist Convention, May 17, 1908, at Hot 
Springs, Ark., and dictated from memory later. The 
main thoughts are the same, but much of the illustration 
and expression could not be recalled. 



VI 



HOW THE AVERAGE PASTOR MAY MAKE 

THE REGULAR SERVICE AN 

EVANGELISTIC FORCE 

I SPEAK for the average pastor, and there are 
many of us who come under that designation. 
In the parable of the Talents, our Lord discusses 
three classes of workers — the highly gifted man 
with five talents; those in the middle register with 
two, and what may be called the average man with 
only one. Phillips Brooks has two very interesting 
sermons on this parable. In one of them he dis- 
cusses the man with two talents, and in the other 
the man with one. The point which he makes in 
this latter sermon is that the world's work, rehgious 
and. secular, is done more by the average man with 
small ability than by the few men of unusual ca- 
pacity ; and the point is well taken. This is certainly 
true in our religious work generally, and among our 
pastors, that the multitude of men with small ca- 
pacity and limited opportunities do a vast amount 
of work, while those with extraordinary gifts and 
opportunities, though they strike the eye, yet in the 
aggregate scarcely accomplish more than do the 
toiling multitude of less gifted men. So the respon- 

105 



io6 Sane JEvanaelism 

sibility of the average man is shown to be very 
great. 

In this matter of soul-winning, for instance, it is 
certainly better that a thousand souls should be won 
by a thousand men than nine hundred and ninety- 
nine by one man ; yet, in any public estimate or report 
the thousand men would never be heard of, while the 
success of the one man would be blazoned abroad 
from one end of the continent to the other. In 
the business of soul-winning there must be the 
differently qualified men, with from one talent to 
five, just as in all other departments of our religious 
work. The talent does not only represent intellec- 
tual and personal gifts, but also opportunity and the 
force of circumstances ; and these are given by God's 
providence. Sometimes the man of large gifts has 
small opportunity, and the other way may be true; 
but where gifts and opportunities are alike great, 
striking successes are won. But as I have said, I am 
speaking for the one-talented man. I have sympathy 
for him. I am one with him. To me, no great suc- 
cesses in soul-winning have ever come ; and if ever 
my heart could feel envy, it would be toward those 
of my brethren whose work in this great department 
has been crowned with a larger measure of success 
than my own. And yet, while speaking thus, I 
ought to say that while it does not seem to me that 
much fruit has come of my labors, yet God has 
granted me enough to keep me from despair. So I 
wish to bring a word of cheer and help to the aver- 



Zl)c BvetaQe pastor an5> jBvawQClism 107 

age pastor, in the way of making the regular serv- 
ices of his church an evangeHstic force; by this, of 
course, I mean, making the Sunday service, espe- 
cially the preaching, a means of soul-winning. The 
topic is certainly one of the utmost importance, and 
it has its obvious difficulties. It must be considered 
in relation to other parts of the general religious 
work, and of the pastor's work. So in bringing the 
subject before you, I shall speak first of its relation 
to other things, and then try to offer some practical 
suggestions. 

In discussing the relation of the regular Sunday 
services to other things as a means of soul-winning, 
there is need of careful discrimination, and also of 
recognizing the due proportion of things. We must 
observe especially three matters : The special meet- 
ing, personal work, and the teaching function of 
the pulpit. 

In regard to special meetings, as compared with 
the regular services of the church, there are some 
obvious things to be noticed. We need not dispense 
with the special meeting, nor with the help of the 
evangelist. Let us not be one-sided. There are 
times in every church's history when a special meet- 
ing for the conversion of sinners will be the main 
object, and in which the aid of an evangelist or 
other pastor is especially needed. Yet it is very 
plain that no pastor ought to depend upon such 
meetings and such outside help as the sole means of 
winning souls for Christ. There is danger lest we 



io8 Sane Bvanaelfsm 

come to think that sinners cannot be saved except 
at a special season, and that we come to depend too 
much upon these unusual and special means. I am 
persuaded that many of our churches and pastors 
are making serious mistakes just here, and are 
forgetting to look to God for conversions through- 
out the year, and by the ordinary means of grace. 

Again, we must relate the regular services of the 
church to personal work. I do not care much 
for this phrase, " personal work.'' All religious 
work is personal, or it is worthless ; but it is a term 
which we have adopted to mean an effort by one in- 
dividual to win another to Christ. Surely this work 
is of the utmost importance, and it cannot by any 
means receive too much emphasis. The pastor him- 
self should be in frequent, close, intimate contact 
with individuals, and should seek by example, in- 
fluence, appeal, and argument, in every way known 
to him to win souls for his Master. Likewise, the 
members of the church should be alert and diligent 
in prosecuting this method of soul-winning. By 
no means ought personal work and pulpit evangel- 
ism ever to be brought into disparaging contrast 
with each other. Both are needed, both are im- 
perative, and they should be always mutually helpful 
and supplementary. One of the best books on this 
subject is the well-known treatise of Dr. H. Clay 
Trumbull on " Individual Work for Individuals." 
I most cordially commend this little book as one 
which has proved helpful to me and to many others. 



Ube UvcvaQC ipastor anb ]£vanaelism 109 

And yet, with all deference, I must say that in the 
first chapter, and in several other passages here and 
there, it seems to me that the beloved and distin- 
guished author has needlessly depreciated by com- 
parison the value of preaching as a means of soul- 
winning. We should never forget that God has 
said through Paul that '' It hath pleased God by the 
foolishness of preaching to save them that believe/' 
I may here be pardoned for giving an incident which 
befell in my own ministry a good many years ago. 

There was in the congregation a gentleman whose 
wife had been for about twenty years a faithful 
member of the church, and their two little daughters 
had been baptized by me about a year previous to 
the time of which I am now speaking. This 
gentleman was a regular attendant at church, and 
had passed through many series of meetings and 
heard many sermons without having ever made a 
public profession of religion. It came into my mind 
that I must go and interview him at his office. 
I did so. He received me kindly, and we talked 
over the matter of his personal religion with both 
frankness and feeling. He brought up the time- 
worn excuse of there being so many unworthy 
professors of religion in the church, and that he, 
himself, had been badly treated in business by some 
professing Christians. But knowing my ground 
well I ventured to ask him if he believed in his 
wife's religion. His eyes filled with tears as he 
answered promptly that he had never known a 



no Sane ]6\>anaelism 

better person in all his life; and then I asked him 
if his two little girls were genuinely converted. By 
that time the man was all broken up. So then, I 
said to him, '' Sir, you have in your own home, 
under your daily observation, the reality of the 
Christian religion, and all that the grace of God can 
do; why should you look abroad at the faults and 
failings of others, and make that an excuse for 
your own lack of faith ? '' He admitted the force 
of the argument. I said to him, " Now I have come 
after you to-day, I want you to give yourself to 
God, and I am going to preach next Sunday morn- 
ing a sermon on the duty of confessing Christ, and 
I want you to understand that that sermon is meant 
for you. I shall not exact any promise of you, but 
I will give you a promise on my own part, that at 
the close of the sermon, I shall give you a chance 
to come out and take Christ as your Lord and 
Saviour.'' I said, '' I shall keep this conversation 
to myself, and no one will know that I have you, 
or any person, especially in mind.'' We then shook 
hands and parted. 

On Sunday morning, I had scarcely begun my 
sermon before I noticed in the tearful and earnest 
face of the gentleman's wife that he had told her 
of the interview, and that she was praying for 
results. At the close of the sermon, I said I could 
not conclude that morning without giving an op- 
portunity for any person present to accept Christ 
and make profession of religion; giving the usual 



Ube average pastor anO Bvangelism 



III 



invitation for any to come forward during the sing- 
ing of the hymn. We had scarcely sung the first 
line before the gentleman came quickly and reso- 
lutely to the front and took his seat. It made a 
profound impression on the congregation, for he 
had been a regular hearer, apparently unmoved, for 
some twenty years under many similar circum- 
stances. It was a joyous day to him and his family, 
and to the church, and I need not say, to the pastor. 
Now observe: while I was meeting him and re- 
joicing, there came hastily up the other aisle a 
young girl to whom I had never said a word on 
the subject of religion, whom I had regarded as 
one of those flippant, impenetrable, light-minded 
characters, to whom it was scarcely worth while to 
speak on the subject of religion. I had, indeed, 
thought of her, and perhaps prayed for her, but so 
far as I know neither I nor any one else had ever 
spoken a word to her on the subject of personal 
religion. I asked her what made her come forward, 
and she said, " I have been listening to your preach- 
ing; and the sermon to-day decided me." Thus was 
I rewarded at one end of the bench and rebuked 
at the other. It was an instance in which the 
expected result of personal work was won, and the 
unexpected result of regular preaching likewise 
appeared. 

I am persuaded that such instances, though this 
is the only one in my own experience — at least of so 
striking a sort — are not so uncommon as we might 



1 1 2 Sane Bvangelism 

think. The incident only illustrates and emphasizes 
the contention here made, that both personal work 
and preaching are needed and should be helpful to 
each other. 

Another thing to be compared to evangelistic 
preaching is the teaching function of the pulpit. 
The preacher must preach other sermons than those 
which bear directly upon conversion and confession. 
Sermons must be preached to build up as well as to 
win souls. The church must be instructed in its 
moral duties, and in its obligations to support the 
work of the kingdom of God at home and abroad. 
Indeed, one of the essential things in church work 
is the preaching of sermons which shall have for 
their main purpose the instruction of those who are 
already Christians. It is evident that our Lord and 
the apostles preached both kinds. It is involved in 
the very nature of preaching that sermons should be 
both proclamatory and instructive ; but those whose 
chief end is instruction may also assist those that 
are more distinctly evangelical and soul-winning in 
aim and character. Now the evangelist has all his 
sermons devoted chiefly to soul-winning, while the 
pastor cannot make that his sole aim ; yet there is no 
reason why either should crowd the other out. 

Let us now consider some practical suggestions 
as to how the pastor may use his regular services, 
especially the preaching, as a means of winning 
souls. And here we must bear in mind that local 
conditions are always to be taken into account. Every 



Ubc average pastor an& Bvangelism 113 

church, every place, has its peculiarities, which must 
be studied, and to which adjustments must be made. 
Methods which suit in one place and on one oc- 
casion will not be successful at other times and 
places. Again, we must bear in mind the personality 
and preparation of the pastor. It is not true that all 
men are equally qualified for this line of work. 
Some pastors are better evangelists than others. It 
will not do to say that because one man has suc- 
ceeded admirably, another man by use of the same 
methods can do the same thing. All experience 
shows that this is not true ; different men and differ- 
ent circumstances must be considered; and. besides 
these there are other things which enter into and 
qualify the conditions of our problem. The times 
are more or less propitious, and the peculiar cir- 
cumstances of a day may alter the general outcome. 
Every one who has had any experience in preaching 
and conducting meetings knows how this must be; 
therefore, any suggestions which may be made as 
to particular ways and means must always be open 
to modification according to the particular circum- 
stances of time, place, and persons. Still, there are 
three general suggestions which I may here throw 
out. 

First of all, the average pastor must have a con- 
viction that his regular service can be used of God 
in the conversion of souls. Never let him lose faith 
here. He must believe that it is not only possible 
that an ordinary sermon may be used of the Holy 

H 



114 Sane Bvangelism 

spirit, but he ought to beheve in it most earnestly ; 
and therefore, he should determine to use the 
regular service for this end, and to expect results. 
It is not to be supposed that he will obtain these 
every time, certainly not positive results in the way 
of conversions, but his general attitude of mind 
toward the regular service should be an expectant 
one. I think this is a matter of the greatest im- 
portance, both for the pastor himself and the congre- 
gation — to feel that the winning of souls is one of 
the principal ends in the conduct of the regular 
Sunday service. 

With this expectancy and determination in mind, 
the pastor should pay attention to the methods of 
making the service thus effective. For one thing, 
the whole service — not the sermon alone, but the 
whole service — should have this object in view. 
Take, for example, the singing — the choir service. 
An ungodly, worldly minded choir, wholly bent 
upon the artistic, and forgetful of the spiritual, is a 
deadly drawback to spiritual impressions. The 
pastor and church should see to it that the choir, as 
a whole, is in sympathy with spiritual and evangel- 
istic effort, and the song service should not only be 
an aid, but a very important element in this work. 
Observe how in evangelistic meetings the solo and 
chorus, and often instrumental music, have been 
used with great effect. Why not consider these in 
the regular services also? 

Then, of course, the reading of the Scriptures and 



Ubc Hvetage pastor anb Evangelism us 

the praying should be made serviceable to this end. 
Mr. Spurgeon's reading of the Scriptures with com- 
ments became famous all over the world as a means 
of grace to the hearers. Sometimes the reading of 
the Scriptures, with him, was quite as effective as 
the preaching itself. But our pastors too often 
drone through the reading of the Scriptures, as if it 
was something to be gotten out of the way, and 
not something to be used as a means of grace. 

But, of course, the sermon is the principal direct 
appeal of the preacher to the people. The pastor, 
according to what has previously been said, ought to 
consider the right proportion of sermons of this 
nature. I think he should not confine his evangelis- 
tic sermons to the evening service, for many come 
to the morning service who are not found at the 
evening service, and vice versa. It would therefore 
be a mistake to confine evangelistic sermons to 
either service; they should be distributed among 
them. As to the character of the sermons, the 
preacher's personality and habits, as well as the 
occasion, must determine. General counsel on this 
head is scarcely needed here. Ordinarily the ser- 
mons should be brief, pointed, illustrative, and 
filled with the marrow and meat of the gospel, 
freighted with the message of grace, and definite in 
the appeal for immediate decision. 

This brings us to consider the invitation which 
should follow a sermon of this sort. Here, once 
more, let it be said emphatically that no iron rule 



1 1 6 Sane jEvanoelism 

can be laid down. Various methods must be tried, 
and the personaHty of the preacher must again 
be considered. The method which one man uses 
with effect, may be a failure in the hands of 
another, and the same man and the same method 
will not be equally successful on all occasions and 
to all audiences. This is so well known that it 
seems scarcely to need mention, and yet we often 
grow impatient through failing to consider just these 
things. We have all had various experiences in this 
direction; perhaps my own may be like those of 
others. We must try various plans. Often have I 
failed; have invited response, and no response has 
come; and sometimes unexpected responses have 
come. In general, I do not think it wise in the 
regular service to press the invitation as much as 
in special evangelistic meetings. 

I have tried with varying success almost every 
kind of invitation. Sometimes an after-meeting of 
fifteen minutes or so, when only the interested were 
expected to remain. Som^etimes the invitation at 
the close of the sermon, either for indication of 
interest or for definite profession of faith. 

Once while assisting a brother in a meeting I 
remember a rainy day, when he himself had gone 
away for some other purpose, and left the whole 
burden of the meeting on me. There were two 
persons in the congregation for whom we had 
prayed, and with whom we had labored in personal 
work, but they had given no sign in public. That 



XLbc UvcvaQC paster an5 Evangelism 1 1 7 

day, as the congregation was very small, and I felt 
somewhat depressed, I concluded I would close the 
service without giving any invitation at all, when 
much to my surprise when we were singing the last 
hymn, these two persons came forward of their 
own motion. Perhaps if the invitation had been 
pressed on them, they would never have responded. 
Human nature is a curious thing. We cannot al- 
ways tell what is the best way to proceed. 

I have sometimes given this kind of invitation ; 
making an appointment at my study for Monday 
evening with any persons who might desire to con- 
verse with me on the subject of religion. Once I 
distinctly remember being at the church study for 
this purpose, when sitting alone at the appointed 
hour, I heard steps outside, and a knock at the door. 
To my joy in came three young men, who had been 
moved by the sermons of the several previous Sun- 
days, and came to make profession of their purpose 
to follow Christ. All three of them, and some 
others, were saved and baptized. 

Once I gave a similar invitation after long months 
of weary waiting and trying many different meth- 
ods, saying that I would go immediately to my study 
from the pulpit, and I would be glad to see any 
person there who would come. Within the next 
fifteen minutes a lad of sixteen, his face bright 
with joy, came in to tell me that for some months his 
heart had been slowly turning toward God, and now 
he was ready to give himself up to Christ. The fol- 



ii8 Sane Bvanaelism 

lowing Sunday two of his sisters came on a similar 
mission, and so one after another for a Sunday or 
two. 

Such instances are rare with me, brethren. I 
have not had many Hke these; but yet there are 
some. Sometimes we do not hear of persons who 
have been touched and reached by our preaching. 
Years ago, in my early ministry, in a meeting not 
far from Roanoke, Va., there were some twenty or 
thirty conversions. Fifteen or twenty years later I 
met a young man in another State, who reminded me 
of that meeting, and told me that he was then a boy 
of twelve, that he sat behind a post in the church 
and tried to avoid the appeal of the sermon, but 
somehow he could not get away from it, and that 
God had used the service that day, and the text, 
which he remembered, to bring him a repentant 
sinner to the foot of the cross. 

Various methods must be tried. We cannot 
always succeed. We must often be disappointed. 
Let us remember that our Saviour himself did not 
win all to whom he preached, and almost broke his 
heart in a lament over the obduracy of Jerusalem. 
What then? Shall we give it up? No. 

The last suggestion is that we must have infinite 
patience. We must keep on year in and year out. 
We must preach evangelistic sermons. We must 
urge sinners to repent. We must hold up the cross 
of Christ. We must besiege the throne of grace 
with prayer. We rpust try various means of appeal 



Zbc Hverage pastor an& Evangelism 119 

and invitation. We must do all the personal work 
that we can ourselves, and encourage our people to 
do likewise. We must have evangelistic meetings 
and seek the help of those who have special experi- 
ence and qualifications for this kind of work. But 
after all, we must ever keep before us that the steady 
pull of the regular service Sunday after Sunday 
must do its share, and take its place among the 
means and forces used of God in the bringing of 
men, women, and children to the knowledge of 
Jesus Christ as the Saviour. 

Let me close, as I began, with a word of cheer to 
the average man. Never mind, my brother, if you 
are never heard of ; never mind if only a few seem to 
respond to your labors; never give up; push the 
work. A thousand of us at work for God, with our 
few results, may yet in the aggregate bring great 
additions to the kingdom of God and help the 
world to our Saviour. 



VII 

PERSONAL EVANGELISM 

BY HENRY ALFORD PORTER, D. D. 



Delivered at evangelistic mass meeting of the Southern 
Baptist Convention, Hot Springs, Ark. 



VII 

PERSONAL EVANGELISM 

A NOTED American described, among his 
reminiscences, one of the hard, forced 
marches during the Civil War. The army was press- 
ing forward to take part in a decisive battle. The 
country was rough, and so thickly wooded that most 
of the time each little company toiled on as if alone, 
out of sight and sound of other comrades. The 
sense of isolation in an enemy's country was most 
depressing. Then, as each little detachment was 
marching wearily on, they came out on a broad 
grassy plain, where the glittering lines of the mighty 
columns, moving on with resistless precision, sud- 
denly came into full view. Each insignificant com- 
pany found itself an integral part of the great, 
compact army. Not a soldier but with quickened 
heartbeat thrilled with pride and new courage. The 
music, the throbbing drums, the banners waving 
over thousands and tens of thousands of marching 
men, formed a picture never to be forgotten. And 
in the battle which followed, each company, 
each man did his part all the more bravely and suc- 
cessfully because of that vision vouchsafed him of 
the mighty whole. 

123 



"4 Sane BvattQelism 

Many of us, striving to carry on the holy war, 
find ourselves stationed in obscure places, in lonely 
little groups. We know there are others engaged in 
the same conflict, but often the sense of isolation 
and weakness settles down like a fog, and we almost 
lose sight of the fact that Christ is our invincible 
leader and that a mighty multitude is marching at 
his word, and that his banner over us is love. 

This is one secret of the inspiring power of a 
great religious convention. It gives us glimpses 
of the mighty moving host of which we form a 
part. We go from these uplifting services back to 
isolated fields of duty with hearts thrilling and 
throbbing and surging from the sense of comrade- 
ship and fired by the vision that each of us is an 
integral part of a vast army which is to fight the 
battles of God and to join in the final burst of 
triumph. Hence the value of such gatherings. 

On the other hand, the inspiration of the multi- 
tude should not dim for us the place and importance 
of the individual. It is a real temptation — ^this. 
" Great is the crowd," is the slogan of to-day. The 
church has caught the contagion of the cry. More 
and more is there a tendency to minify the one, and 
to magnify the many. To attract, to stir great con- 
gregations, to gather together great conventions 
fining colossal halls, this is the order of the hour. 

It is not a bad thing, as we have seen. But the 
fascination of the masses should be carefully scru- 
tinized. A sad day for any man, a sad day espe- 



personal JEvanaelism 125 

dally for the preacher, when he bends his neck to 
the tyranny of numbers and, enamored with the 
throng, forgets the unit. One by one is the divine 
process, and he who seeks the one will find the 
many. 

" Ye shall be gathered one by one, O ye children 
of Israel." God deals with mankind as a whole. 
He is the creator of the entire human race. He 
sustains them all in being ; he loads them all with his 
benefits; he encompasses them all with his love. 

And yet the wonder of his grace is that he deals 
with each man individually. The great Shepherd, 
whose are the cattle on a thousand hills, knows 
each one of his sheep by name. The God of whom 
John writes, " He loved the world," is the same 
God of whom Paul testifies, '' Who loved me and 
gave himself for me." 

God's love is like the sunshine, universal, yet 
particular. " The sun," says Henry Ward Beecher, 
" the sun does not shine merely for a few trees 
and flowers, but for the wide world's joy. And 
yet the lonely pine upon the mountaintop may toss 
its somber branches in the air and cry, ' Thou art 
my sun ! ' " 

God is great enough to specialize. Julia Ward 
Howe once wrote to an eminent senator of the 
United States in behalf of a man who was suffering 
great injustice. He replied, " I am so much taken 
up with plans for the benefit of the race that I 
have no time for individuals." She returned to him 



126 Sane Evangelism 

the answer, '' When last heard from, our Maker 
had not reached this altitude/' 

Lord of all being, throned afar, 
Thy glory flames from sun and star ; 

Center and soul of every sphere, 
Yet to each loving heart how near. 

One by one was the method of the Master. 

In our Lord's parables it was not a lost flock, but 
a lost sheep that drew the shepherd into the night 
and the storm. It was not over a Pentecost, but over 
one repenting sinner that the angels sang. It was 
not a lost treasure, but a lost coin for which God 
swept the universe. It was not a lost race, but a 
lost son that kept the father waiting at the gate. 
In our Lord's miracles he never raised an army from 
the dead. He went and touched the bier and said, 
'' Young man, arise." He went to the grave of 
Lazarus and said, " Lazarus, come forth." 

In our Lord's sermons we find the best reserved 
for the least. Somebody said in a ministers' meeting 
awhile ago that Jesus never attracted the crowds. 
The man who says that misreads the Gospels. Jesus 
was the crowd-compeller of the ages. And yet we 
find the deepest truths of his religion uttered, not to 
a great congregation, but to an audience of one. To 
that unknown scribe he gave his summary of the 
law. To that nameless woman he announced the 
great principle of spiritual worship. To that proud 
ruler he gave the wondrous discourse upon the new 



personal BvanaeUsm 127 

birth. Even on the cross, Jesus saved a soul. He 
paid no heed to the jeering crowd, but he heard the 
cry of a dying man, and opened up a vision of para- 
dise to him, and when he went away he took that 
man with him. 

They wondered when he put a child in the midst 
and said, '' Take heed that ye despise not one of 
these.'' It was a cause of wonder to the world of 
his time that he should care for a single life. In 
the midst of a surging multitude he felt that some 
one person had touched him. To the blind people 
who could not see a tree for the forest, nor a man 
for the mass, it \yas incredible that he should feel 
anything but the pressure of the populace. But he 
knew that vitality had gone out of him to be the 
strength of one woman who needed it. There is 
nothing in the records more wondrously significant 
than this. It means that we are not to allow the 
people to swallow up the person; that we are to 
have an ear responsive to the call of a single soul, 
as well as to the clamor of the multitude. 

One by one was the way of the first disciples, 
Andrew, when he found Jesus, brought Simon 
Peter. Philip, when he found Jesus, told the story 
to Nathanael. That was the beginning. And thus 
it kept on. Philip the evangelist cheerfully leaves 
a mighty work in Samaria and takes a long journey 
to join himself to the chariot of the Ethiopian 
eunuch. Peter goes from Joppa to Caesarea to have 
a personal interview with Cornelius. Paul, the 



128 Sane Bvangelism 

greatest of all preachers, thinkers, writers, was also 
an indefatigable personal worker. See him with 
the governor of Cyprus, with Lydia, with the jailer 
of Philippi, with many whom he met from house to 
house in Ephesus, with the governors Felix and 
Festus, with Agrippa the king, and with Onesimus 
the slave. 

It is said of the persecuted Christians scattered 
after the martyrdom of Stephen, that they " went 
everywhere preaching." And that word does not 
mean prolonged public address. It means just talk- 
ing — telling the good news. Not the apostles — 
everybody — men and women of the common rank 
went about talking the glad tidings. That is the 
way the early church shook the world; and surely 
we of America, with all our inventions, have not 
improved upon the Bible plan and practice. 

All this modern device and machinery for winning 
men to the Master had its origin this side of the 
apostolic age. I do not mean to condemn it all, 
but I do say that the quiet personal way by which 
men speak heart to heart and hand to hand is the 
natural New Testament way. 

Then one by one is the law of life. 

Doctors look after individual patients; lawyers 
after individual clients ; railroad conductors after in- 
dividual passengers ; life insurance agents after indi- 
vidual applicants; commercial travelers after indi- 
vidual orders. A great wholesale merchant, who has 
investigated the matter carefully, says that eighty- 



personal Evangelism 129 

five per cent, of the goods sold by wholesale dealers 
in the United States is sold through the work of 
traveling salesmen ; that is, through the face-to-face 
appeal. It is also claimed that ninety-eight per cent, 
of the immense membership of the many lodges of 
the country has been obtained in the same direct, 
personal way. Politicians influence votes and secure 
elections by the use of this method. The best 
teachers forget the class in the pupil. This is the 
Roman Catholic policy. The confessional is the 
outgrowth of the recognition of this law. Priests 
and nuns follow and cultivate the individual. 

That which is the Divine process, the method of 
the Master, the way of the first disciples, and the 
law of life, is surely the secret of success in Christian 
work. 

The secret of success, I should like to put a ton 
of emphasis upon this. That eminent preacher. Dr. 
Theodore L. Cuyler, once said of the three thousand 
souls received into his church-membership, '^ I have 
handled every stone." John Vassar, the plain Bap- 
tist colporter, loved to style himself '' God's shepherd 
dog after individual souls," and he led literally thou- 
sands to Jesus Christ. Dr. J. M. Peck, himself one 
of the most successful soul-winners whom the last 
generation produced, left a testimony which every 
Baptist ought to learn by heart: 

'' If it were revealed to me from heaven that God 
had given me ten more years of life, and that, as a 
condition of my eternal salvation I must win a 



I30 Sane Bvangelism 

thousand souls to Christ in that time, and if it were 
further conditioned to this end that I might preach 
every day for the ten years, but might not personally 
appeal to the unsaved outside the pulpit; or that I 
might not enter the pulpit during those ten years, 
but might exclusively appeal to individuals, I should 
not hesitate one moment to choose personal effort 
as the sole means to be used in the conversion of the 
one thousand souls necessary to my own salvation.*' 
He was right, everlastingly right. 

The Andrew and Peter way is the only way the 
world can ever be reached. Comparatively few 
people hear sermons, and still fewer hear them 
consecutively. They must be supplemented by per- 
sonal evangelism if the earth is ever to be redeemed. 
We must multiply the voices, we must multiply the 
testimonies if we are ever to lash the continents to 
the throne of grace. For great as is the harvest of 
human souls, countless as are the sheaves that are 
to be brought home with rejoicing from the fields 
of earth into the garden of heaven, " they shall 
be gathered one by one.'' 

For personal evangelism four things are essential. 
These essentials many of you know and practise 
much better than I, but it may do us good to think 
of them a little. The first essential is 

Character. '' Create in me a clean heart, O God, 
and renew a right spirit within me. . . Then will I 
teach transgressors thy way; and sinners shall be 
converted unto thee." 



personal Bvauflellsm 131 

Equipment for soul-winning is by way of spiritual 
power rather than by studied process. Your words 
will never win unless your life is winsome. A 
wrong life will never win to a right Hfe. The chief 
equipment of the soul-winner is not a string of 
Bible verses, but a Christlike life. It is the man or 
woman back of the words that gives them force. 

An impediment of speech is a serious thing; an 
impediment of life is a fatal thing. '' The world has 
been influenced more by footprints than by guide- 
boards/' says one of the wise. " Not the way a 
man points, but the way he goes, affects others.'' 
Guideboards are all very well. There must be point- 
ings and precepts, instruction and direction, but the 
indispensable example must go with them. We must 
be like the godly man of old who '' allured to 
brighter worlds, and led the way.'' A man may de- 
liberately set up the best of signboards and guide- 
posts, while unconsciously his footprints point the 
other way. It is not strange that the footprints 
have more power than the guideboards. The 
strange thing is that a man should expect his guide- 
boards to have more influence than his footprints. 
Let us not neglect the guideboards, let us point out 
the way in every possible manner, but let us see to 
it that we go the way we point. Sad it will be for 
us and for others if our lives speak so loudly against 
Christ that men cannot hear what we say for him ! 

Two men stopped on the street to talk. Just then 
a street-organ struck up a tune. It was a mean and 



132 Sane Evangelism 

rickety instrument, and did nothing but wheeze and 
groan and give forth distortions and spasms of 
sound. " Let us move on and get rid of that abom- 
inable tune," said one to the other. His friend re- 
pHed, '' The tune is all right. Do you not know 
it ? " " No, and I do not care to know it. I could 
never be made to like it.'' ''Why not? It was 
written by none other than the great Handel. It is 
' See, the Conquering Hero Comes ! ' '' '' Well, 
then Handel wrote a very poor thing." ** I cannot 
allow Handel's works to be slandered thus! You 
must come with me to the Handel festival and hear 
the tune as it ought to be rendered." A month later 
the admirer of Handel took his friend to the Handel 
festival. As the man listened to that sound of 
symphonies and hallelujahs he was especially carried 
away with one part. He went into raptures in his 
praises of it. Asking his friend what that part was 
called, he was surprised at the reply, " That is 
' See, the Conquering Hero Comes ! ' " 

There are Christians and Christians, and there 
is as much difference between them as there is be- 
tween a wheezy hand-organ that creaks out in 
paroxysms and gasps Handel's great production, 
and the finely selected and managed orchestra that 
makes Handel's great production thrill. All Chris- 
tians are trying in their measure to repeat in their 
lives the music of their great Master's life. But I 
know some in whom the music is so faint, so rasp- 
ing, so intermittent, that it repels and men stop the 



personal Evangelism 133 

ears of their souls when they draw near. And I 
know others whose Hves give out such strains of 
purity, triumph, peace, and joy, that when they ap- 
proach, men are compelled to listen and hear and 
heed. 

One day you had a revelation of the nobility of 
a man's character. I ask you, had he stood on this 
rostrum and spoken with the tongue of men and 
of angels, could he have so moved the deeps of 
your soul as by that unveiling of himself? I stand 
here to testify that it was this same resistless charm 
of consistent Christian character re-enforcing the 
words which were said, that led me, a sinner, to the 
Saviour. 

It is said that at the sight of Apollo the body 
erects itself and assumes a more dignified attitude. 

Be noble; and the nobleness that lies 
In other men, sleeping, but never dead, 
Will rise in majesty to meet thine own. 

Courage is an essential. It is necessary to have 
Christian courage for this, as for other acts of 
Christian living. Courage? Surely we have that. 
There is no virtue we would more gladly possess 
and prove. 

Many a layman who can talk convincingly on 
other subjects equally delicate and difficult is voice- 
less when he comes to the subject of personal sal- 
vation. Many a preacher w^ho is eloquent before a 



134 sane Evangeitsm 

large audience is dumb before a single individual. 
Bossuet, the great French preacher, said frankly as 
to this very matter, " It requires more faith and 
courage to say two words face to face with one 
single sinner than from the pulpit to rebuke two or 
three thousand persons, ready to listen to everything 
on condition of forgetting all." 

Street courage is a very different thing from 
stage courage. It is not so hard to have courage in 
the pulpit, '' from which a man, surrounded by his 
friends, in the absence of his opponents, secure of 
applause and safe from reply, denounces those who 
differ from him '' ; but privately to approach those 
same men against whom we have discharged our 
batteries and deal with them about their souls takes 
courage of a higher sort. We hear of the rarity of 
two-o'clock-in-the-morning courage ; but two- 
o'clock-in-the-afternoon courage is rarer far. 

Our courage will be increased if we remember 
that the man we are most afraid of is often the man 
who is most inclined to listen to us. I have in mind 
two or three men whom I approached with especial 
fear and trembling. I felt like Marshal Ney on ad- 
vancing upon the enemy. Seeing his hand shaking, 
he exclaimed, " Ah, you tremble ; if you knew where 
I am going to take you you would tremble worse 
than that ! " I would rather have faced a battery 
in full blaze of lyddite shells than their astonished 
eyes. But in every case, without exception, I had 
a reception favorable beyond my fairest dreams. 



personal lEvangelism 13s 

The Spirit that impels the Hps to speak prepares the 
heart to hear. 

Where are we to obtain this holy courage? In 
what forests shall we search for it? In what mines 
shall we dig for it? Over what seas shall we sail 
for it? What mountains shall we climb for it? It 
is not to be found by searching in earth or air or sea. 
It is to be obtained from the divine and only source ; 
from communion with Him who was not only the 
purest and gentlest, but also the bravest spirit that 
ever dwelt on earth. And when men see our bold- 
ness they will take knowledge of us, that we have 
been with him who was not only the Lamb of God, 
but the Lion of the tribe of Judah. 

With courage there must be allied another essen- 
tial — tact. 

Tact means touch. It has reference to the 
proper way of handling a person. The soul-winner, 
like the surgeon, must have " the heart of a lion 
and the hand of a woman." 

The best text on tact is found in the story wherein 
Moses was told to pick up the serpent — '' Take it 
by the tail.'' He didn't catch it by the throat, nor 
go for its head. He made no violent attack. He 
might have met its fangs had he done so. He took 
it by the least offensive part — the tail. 

Some of the best illustrations of tact are fur- 
nished by the career of Paul. His introduction to the 
Athenians : " Ye men of Athens, I perceive that in 
all things ye are very religious," is the very acme 



136 Sane Evartflelism 

of Christian art. His appeal to Agrippa, '' I would 
to God that not only thou, but also all that hear me 
this day, were . . . such as I am, except these 
bonds," is as fine as anything in the records of 
human speech. 

Some Christians have been washed of their sins, 
but never ironed. Paul's example tells us that it 
is as necessary to have the courtesy of one's convic- 
tions as to have the courage of one's convictions. 
You will never win a man to Christ until you 
first win him to yourself. 

Jesus, Master everywhere, is our master in tact. 
The best text-book on tact is the fourth chapter of 
John. His greeting to the woman of Sychar is 
typical of his method. '* Give me to drink," he said. 
There was profound philosophy in that request. If 
you would close a man's heart to you, it is often 
enough to do him a favor. If you would open a 
man's heart to you, have him do you a favor. It was 
thus that Jesus found entrance to this thirsty and 
dissatisfied spirit. I believe he won the woman 
taken in sin by his delicate refusal to look at her 
while the Pharisees accused her. His approach to 
Nicodemus, to Matthew, to Nathanael, to Zaccheus, 
was perfectly adapted to their habits of life. He 
that winneth souls must be wise in his adaptation to 
the various needs and natures of men. The most 
successful man in Christian work is the man who 
can say " Come to Jesus " in the greatest number of 
ways. 



personal Evanselfsm 137 

Patience is an element in tact. It has been said 
by one who ought to know that, on an average, a 
period of about fourteen months is occupied by an 
agent in obtaining an insurance risk. That is, over 
a year elapses between the time when the man to be 
insured is first approached and the day on which the 
policy is written. During that period the agent, 
with consummate address, is carrying on a campaign 
of education and persuasion in the mind of the man 
whom he proposes to insure. A Hve agent has al- 
ways a large number of such campaigns in different 
stages of progress, with the result that every little 
while a risk is secured. What a lesson in tact and 
persistence the agent offers to the Christian who 
aims to save souls ! 

The worst possible tact is the tact that does noth- 
ing for fear that harm would result from effort. 
It is the attitude of the man who vows he will never 
go near the water until he has learned to fish. 
Izaak Walton would tell him that the only way to 
learn to fish is to fish. There is no other way to 
learn how to fish for men. 

A fourth essential is compassion. 

Compassion, in its derivative meaning — suffering 
with; suffering with the lost sinner, and sufifering 
with the Son of God in his travail for souls. You 
know more of this than I do, many of you ; but how 
little any of us know about it! 

David Brainerd, that early apostle to the Indians, 
wrote in his journal a hundred and fifty years ago: 



133 Sane Bvangelism 

'' I wrestled for the ingathering of souls, for multi- 
tudes of poor souls, personally, in many distant 
places. I was in such an agony, from sun half an 
hour high till near dark, that I was wet all over with 
sweat; but oh, my dear Lord did sweat blood for 
such souls. I longed for more compassion." I 
confess to you I do not know what that means, but I 
know more than I once did. We must have it, we 
must have more of it if we are to move men 
heavenward. Did you ever have the experience of 
being unable to help a man who needed your help? 

I cannot tell the circumstances of the case, but a 
stranger who heard me preach wrote me to come and 
see him. He said he thought I could help him. I 
went, and that evening he told me one of the sad- 
dest tragedies I ever listened to. I came away late 
at night, and this was my wail as I walked home 
under the stars of God : *' I have not helped him, 
I have not helped him." And in that hour I knew 
the reason. I had not suffered with him. I had 
been too self-conscious. Tearless hearts can never 
win broken hearts. We must bleed if we would 
save. 

Do we know what it is to travail for souls ? David 
knew, when in the little room over the gate, he 
cried out in anguish, " O my son Absalom, my son, 
my son Absalom ! Would God I had died for thee ! " 
Moses knew when he cried out to God that if the 
people might not be forgiven, *' Blot me, I pray thee, 
out of thy book ! " Paul knew what rt meant when 



personal jEvanaeltsm 139 

he declared that he was wilHng to be accursed if the 
people for whom he labored might be saved. Our 
Lord knew, for " when he saw the multitudes he 
was moved with compassion for them/' and '' when 
he beheld the city he wept over it/' How long 
since you wept over the city, over the broken hearts 
and blighted lives and blasted souls ? Have you lost 
your tears ? A terrible loss, that ! 

Are we in the succession of those who bear the 
burden of souls ? Does the cry of the lost pierce the 
heart and ring even through the fabric of our 
dreams ? My God ! My God ! give us all to feel 
something of Christ's compassion when he said to 
the Father, " Here am I, send me " ; something of 
his compassion when he cried, " Father, forgive 
them " ; for unless we suffer with the Son we 
cannot be successful with men. 

Thank God for the doctrine of election ! That is 
out of date in some quarters, but again I say, thank 
God for the doctrine of election ! *^ Go out into the 
highways and hedges and compel them to come in, 
that my house may be filled." His house shall be 
filled. There is a day coming when all the rooms 
shall be taken. Our God will not have a half-empty 
heaven. His house shall be filled. Not all our in- 
activity can prevent that. " He shall see of the 
travail of his soul and shall be satisfied." " Many 
mansions " on the streets of the city ; not one 
vacant. Many seats at the everlasting feast ; not one 
unoccupied. But as you sit at that board and look 



I40 Sane Evanaeltsm 

about will you look into the faces of any who have 
been brought there through your efforts ? 

Have you ever brought one soul to Jesus? If 
you have not, how are you going to meet him face 
to face? How would it look for you to go alone 
into the palace of the King? I wonder if anybody 
ever did enter heaven alone ? What would the angels 
say? What would the King say? 

Perchance in heaven some day to me 
Some blessed saint will come and say, 
"All hail! beloved, but for thee 

My soul to death had fallen a prey." 

And oh! what rapture in the thought; 

One soul to glory to have brought. 



VIII 
THE POWER OF PENTECOST 

BY LEN G. BROUGHTON, D. D. 

Author, lecturer, and pastor of the 
Tabernacle Baptist Church, Atlanta, Ga. 



Text: "Then Peter said unto them, Repent and be 
baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ 
for the remission of sins, and ye shall receive the gift of 
the Holy Ghost. For this promise is unto you and your 
children, and to all that are afar off, even as many as 
the Lord our God shall call" (Acts 2 : 38, 39). 



VIII 
THE POWER OF PENTECOST 

FIRST, let us get the setting of this Scripture. 
Jesus had just commanded his disciples to tarry 
in Jerusalem until they were endued with power 
from on high. They tarried and the Spirit of God 
came upon them. When the Holy Ghost rested upon 
them it was the day of Pentecost. Peter was se- 
lected to preach the Pentecostal sermon. It is a 
very ordinary sermon, but upon Peter and the mes- 
sage he brought, and the people to whom he spoke, 
the Holy Spirit had been poured out. Even while 
he spoke they kept interrupting him with questions, 
until finally the whole congregation seemed to be 
seized with a spirit of desire and began almost to 
a man to cry to God for mercy and to Peter for 
instruction. Peter said, " This marvelous demon- 
stration which you see is the result of the power of 
the Spirit promised in Joel. The Spirit has come 
and we have received him." In answer to their 
question, " What shall we do ? " Peter said, " Repent, 
and be baptized." " Get religion," as we would say 
in the South. Seek the Lord and find him, and then 
obey him in baptism. '' Then what, Peter? " " Then 

143 



144 Sane BvartQelism 

ye shall receive the gift of the Spirit." This power 
which you see working upon the audience will come 
upon you as a gift from God when you have done 
the other things. " Why ? '' '' Because the promise 
is to you and to your children, and as many as are 
afar oflf, even as many as the Lord our God shall 
call." 

An after work. There are two or three things I 
want to fix on your minds. First, that this promise 
of power is distinctly an after work to man's regen- 
eration. Don't get scared lest I go oflf into some 
fanaticism. It is positively an after work to man's 
salvation. These disciples did not ask Peter concern- 
ing salvation. That was not in their minds. They 
were asking him how they might receive this marvel- 
ous power which was doing such wonders in that 
congregation. The answer is what I want us to 
grip to-day. It has ever been true in the lives of 
God's people. Enduement of power was always an 
after work to salvation. These disciples had been 
converted and saved before they were ordered to 
tarry in Jerusalem until they were endued with 
power. They must be equipped for their work with 
the Spirit of God. 

The apostle has demonstrated the fact that it is 
one thing to be saved and another thing to be filled 
or endued with the Holy Ghost. I know that it is 
true in experience. I know when I was converted ; 
I can go to the spot where I met the Lord in the 
forgiveness of sin. I can also go to the very 



Ubc power ot Pentecost i4S 

spot where I accepted and definitely received God 
the Holy Ghost for service. My heart longs to see 
the church not simply standing for the doctrines, 
but standing for them in personal heart's experi- 
ence. Not merely being able to reason out this ex- 
perience, but standing for it in heart and life. 

For every Christian. This power of the Holy 
Ghost is for every man, woman, and child who will 
receive it. 

Some one will say, *' I am aware of the fact that 
this enduement of power is for the preacher.'' It is 
for the preacher. I don't believe any man ought 
to preach the gospel of Jesus until he has received 
the Holy Ghost for service. I believe it is one of 
the questions that we ought to insist upon when 
we ordain a man for the ministry. " Have ye re- 
ceived the Holy Ghost since ye believed ? " But let 
us not assume that it is simply for the preacher. 
The apostle teaches that it is for you as well as 
for us. It is for them that are afar off as well as 
those who are at home. It is for as many as the 
Lord our God shall call. You need this super- 
natural power which is beyond the explanation of 
man. When men are made to feel that they are in 
the presence of Almighty God there is power. 

And then, mother, with the little tots constantly 
pulling at your skirts and asking questions that 
would puzzle the wisest philosopher, with the same 
things to do every day in the same way, looking at 
the same furniture and the same dishes, and dealing 

K 



146 Sane JEvanaeligm 

with the same trials day in and day out — oh, I tell 
you, you need to have with you the Spirit of power. 
I say that if God had not provided some supernatural 
power for the home life, he would have made a mis- 
take. It is for the mother as much as for the 
preachers who preach in the greatest pulpits the 
world ever had. Thank God, I am here to say to 
you it makes no difference what your profession 
may be, you may be equipped with this supernatural 
power. 

I talked with a young man one day, who said, 
*^ I remember back yonder in my home life there was 
an atmosphere that I never saw in other homes. 
My mother never made much ado about her religion, 
but as sure as you live there was that very thing 
about which you have been preaching. There was 
the presence of something that followed me after 
her death until I gave my heart to God." 

Friend, in dealing with church problems, you 
officials of the church, you tell me that you do not 
need this equipment of power? Oh, the ten thou- 
sand things in the city church to-day ! We are tried 
so far that we are about to lose confidence in man. 
We see men clinging to the almighty dollar until 
the church would die and go to hell if it depended on 
them. Sometimes we almost give up the fight. 
Brethren, we need power. Thank God, we may 
have the power. It is for every child of God who 
will come up and pay the price and accept the gift. I 
would like to have that kind of church — a church 



Ube power of Pentecost 147 

where every member had received the power of the 
Holy Spirit. 

How obtained? How may I, a humble child of 
God, a woman, a mother, a housekeeper, a clerk, a 
bookkeeper, a doctor, a lawyer, a private in the 
ranks of God, a preacher, a singer, how may I be 
endued with this supernatural power? 

Jesus said, ^' If any man thirst, let him come unto 
me and drink, and out of his unseen life shall flow 
rivers of living water/' What is Jesus talking 
about? He is talking about the overflowing life; 
the life of the Spirit. You see the difference in a 
pump on the street and an artesian well. You don't 
have to pump the artesian well for water. This is 
the difiference between the Spirit life and the life of 
human energy. The life of human energy is the 
life of the church to-day. If we are going to have 
a revival we have got to pump and pump and pump. 
Whatever we have to do for God, if it is done at all, 
it is done in the energy of the flesh. 

Pumping is hard work, and all the time right here 
by us God gives us the plan, to be filled with the 
Spirit so that we shall be like rivers of living water, 
flowing all the time. 

Not desire, but thirst, " If any man thirst." It 
does not say desire. A soldier said to me, " Some 
of us did not have water at one time during the war 
for three days. I saw the time when I would have 
given my right arm or my foot for a cup of water." 
This figure of thirst is a desire that cannot be satis- 



148 Sane iBvamcUsm 

fied in any other way. It is such a desire that you 
would give anything in this world to obtain; you 
would willingly give your arm, your foot, your eye, 
your money, friendship, everything, to obtain this 
one thing needed in Christian experience. Brethren, 
that is the thing that keeps us away from the bless- 
ing. We are not willing to pay the price. We will 
not turn loose our grip upon the things of the world. 
There is no reception of the Holy Ghost until a 
man gets to the point where he says, '' Lord, I sur- 
render all. I wall suffer to any extent ; I will suffer 
anything, in order that I may be filled with the 
power of the Spirit so that my life will overflow and 
touch the lives of others." 

Have we seen our human frailty to the extent that 
we fall down and say, '^ God help us, or we perish " ? 
Have we felt that we are undone? Have we felt 
it as a church? Are we dependent on the church, 
or the preacher, or the singing, or upon the system ? 
Oh, this is the thought of all others. God help us to- 
day. 

Where are we? Where does this thirst lead us 
to? To the feet of Jesus. How long are we to stay 
there ? Thank God, we do not have to wait for the 
blessing long. Rev. F. B. Meyer puts it this way: 
The Englishman loves his tea perhaps next to his 
religion. One day a gentleman called upon his 
friend to discuss with him the work of the Holy 
Spirit in the believer. The gentleman of the house 
said, '' I have endeavored often to receive this 



Ube power of Pentecost 149 

promised blessing, but have always failed." It was 
lunch-time, so they went in together. As a matter 
of course, tea was served. Said the gentleman of 
the house, '' Will you have a cup of tea?'' When 
he answered in the affirmative, the tea was placed 
by his plate, and the conversation proceeded. In a 
few minutes the visitor said, '' Will you give me a 
cup of tea? '' 

'' Why," said his friend, " there is your tea." 

A few moments more elapsed, then the man again 
asked, '' Will you please give me some tea ? " 

" Why, my friend, there is your tea ! Why don't 
you take it ? " 

" Well," said the man, '' I have been trying to get 
it for some time, but haven't yet succeeded." 

The man of the house looked puzzled for a mo- 
ment, then his face lighted up, as he said, " Drink 
your tea, man ; I have learned the lesson. I see now, 
the blessing that I have sought is there for the 
taking." 

Have we come to the place where we are unwilling 
to go any further without the consciousness of the 
Spirit's power? Then let us look up and by faith 
receive. 



IX 
METHODS IN EVANGELISM 

BY W. W. HAMILTON 



IX 

METHODS IN EVANGELISM 

ONE day when walking along with Dr. Len G. 
Broughton, who has been introduced to a 
Virginia audience as '' the most cussed and discussed 
minister in the South/' we were talking of a theme 
on which he was to speak at a meeting of workers. 
His subject was, " The Preaching for the Times," 
and he remarked that it was not correctly worded, 
that it ought to be, " The Preaching for the Man " ; 
that each man must do his own kind of preaching. 
Dr. G. Campbell Morgan said in an Atlanta con- 
ference that he could never just get into Christ's 
meaning when he said, " Follow me and I will make 
you fishers of men," until he remembered that 
those to whom he spoke were fishermen. Doctor 
Morgan declared that nothing was to him more 
unpleasant than fishing, but that his delight had 
been to sit at the teacher's desk, and that when Jesus 
called him he said, '' Follow me, and I will make 
you a teacher of men " ; that to Doctor Broughton, 
who had so loved medicine, the Lord said, '' Follow 
me, and I will make you a physician to men." Paul 
recognized this same principle when he spoke of 
" My gospel." 

153 



154 Sane Bvanaelism 

This fact should help us to be charitable toward 
other men's methods; should make the pastor less 
suspicious of the evangelist, and should cause the 
evangeHst to recognize more fully the work of the 
pastor. A man's usefulness is not to be measured 
by his methods of work any more than his ortho- 
doxy is to be decided by his posture in prayer. Each 
man must do his work in the way for which God 
has fitted him, and must at his spiritual birth dis- 
cover and train and bring to fruitage and to service 
the possibilities which were latent in him at his 
physical birth. So this chapter on methods cannot 
attempt to tell any man how to use the powers God 
has given him. It can only give a few of the 
methods used by other men and hope thereby to 
awaken the gift that some other man has for making 
more effective his own ministry, and can only 
state a few inclusive principles which will apply 
generally in special efforts to reach those whom we 
should win to the Lord. 

I. Begin in Time, Sometimes a pastor will make 
an engagement with the evangelist to come, and 
then wait until he comes before anything is done to 
enlist the church or the community. Such a pro- 
ceeding is an injustice to the evangelist, the church, 
and the cause of Christ. In a recent meeting, when 
it became evident that very little if any thought had 
been given to the special services, the evangelist 
asked the small company what had been done, and 
the pastor replied, '' We have just been waiting for 



tiHetbo&s in iBvanQcUsm 15s 

you/' We are not to wait for the evangelist, and we 
are not to '' prepare for the evangehst/' but we are 
to prepare the way of the Lord and make straight 
the paths for his coming. 

In one of our cities where a meeting was held in 
March, steps were taken the previous fall toward 
bringing the churches into a concerted effort; one 
pastor preached every Sunday night during the fall 
and winter on Bible revivals, and for weeks the 
pastors met to plan and pray for the meetings. 
Meetings for prayer were held in the homes and in 
the churches for some time before the special 
services began, the people crowded to hear the 
gospel, the great department stores, wholesale houses 
as well as the smaller places of business closed their 
doors in order to show their interest and give their 
employees opportunity to attend the places of prayer, 
and people ate their lunches on the street going 
from one appointed place of worship to another. 
The great daily papers of this city gave full pages 
to accounts of the meetings, many were saved, 
more than five hundred people united with Baptist 
churches following the campaign, the religious 
forces of the city came to realize their united 
strength, and launched a movement for civic reform, 
the success of which amazed the Christian people, 
and which later spread to a larger victory in the 
State. 

A Texas pastor writes : " The Broadway Baptist 
Church, Fort Worth, Tex., has passed through a 



is6 Sane jEvangeusm 

remarkable spiritual experience. Home Board 
evangelists led in the most vigorous and successful 
soul-winning campaign this city, or section, has ever 
known. During four weeks two hundred and 
twenty united with the one church, one hundred and 
forty-nine of these by baptism. No less than five 
hundred were converted and reclaimed. The power 
of God was so manifest about the very building that 
men, some of them not saved, declared that they 
felt a strange and unmistakable sense of the divine 
Presence upon entering the room. A considerable 
majority of those received for baptism were men and 
boys, many of them dissipated or skeptical. 

'' It was clear, upon the arrival of the evangelists, 
that the fires were already burning. The very day 
of their arrival a large number were saved, and 
thirteen united with the church. 

"We gave ourselves up to the work of getting 
ready. We pressed it upon our hearts that great 
harvests do not happen, that in the spiritual, as 
in the natural, realm God bestow^s his blessings 
according to unerring laws. For weeks we gave the 
thought of revival right of way in our church life. 
We insisted that no people could pursue their own 
ways and pleasures eleven months in the year and 
hold a revival during the twelfth month. We urged 
it upon our own hearts that we had no right to com- 
mand the services of evangelists who are in demand 
in many sections and for glorious movements with- 
out using our utmost endeavors to prepare the way 



fnietbobs in Evangelism 157 

for their coining. We talked revival, we prayed 
and sang revival, we planned revival, we thought 
revival by day and dreamed revival by night, until 
the revival idea literally possessed us." 

B. P. Robertson, of Florida, says : '' The New Tes- 
tament church was born in a great revival in the city 
of Jerusalem, and the history of the progress of real 
Christianity since that day has been a record of 
special revival efforts. There is a normal evangel- 
istic state into which every church ought to seek to 
enter, but there are very few churches which do 
attain unto such a state, and even those churches 
which do reach this condition do so through special 
evangelistic meetings. 

^^ Some special preparation is necessary for a suc- 
cessful evangelistic effort. Experience and observa- 
tion reveal the fact that the seeming failures in 
special revival efforts are due mainly to the lack 
of thorough preparation, so that the important 
question here is what kind of preparation is needed, 
and how can it be made ? 

" The pastor should lead his people in the study 
of biblical evangelism. In this study he should de- 
vote special attention to the biblical records of 
revivals and the history of great revivals since that 
day. This study should be conducted several weeks 
before the special meetings begin, and will create in 
the hearts of the people an intense desire for a 
genuine spiritual awakening and an unquenchable 
thirst for the salvation of the lost. The enlighten- 



is8 Sane lEvangelism 

ment of the Christian people on evangelism will 
usually enlist them in such efforts/' 

2. Advertise the Meetings. One pastor says again, 
^' It occurred to us that in a most sensational way 
the Spirit announced and advertised the pentecostal 
revival, so that a great audience assembled for the 
first meeting. We would do the same. We made 
use of the generous space accorded us by the daily 
press. We printed and scattered hundreds of invi- 
tations to the meetings. For weeks we filled our 
little church paper with facts and news concerning 
the men who were coming and the work proposed. 
The week before the evangelists came our workers 
visited some four thousand homes with personal and 
printed invitations. We placed scores of large 
placards bearing pictures of the evangelists and of 
our meeting-house in prominent buildings through- 
out the city. If, through the Spirit's startling an- 
nouncement, all Jerusalem knew that something un- 
usual was doing about the temple on the day of 
Pentecost, it is also true that all Fort Worth had 
gotten an idea that something was about to take 
place at the Broadway Baptist Church.'' 

The pastor needs to know how so to get his 
meetings before the community as not to have them 
think so much of the messenger as his message, 
God's word preached in the power of the Spirit. 
This can often be done by printing a Bible message 
on the card or circular which Is sent around. This, 
for example, has been used effectively : 



finetbo&s in jEvanaelism 159 

ETERNITY! 
Where Will You Spend It? 

My friend, before you lay down this leaflet, 
ponder and decide this all-important question, 
Where will you spend eternity? 

Eternity! What a thought! You are bound to 
know that this life is not all. After this short day is 
done, when youth is merged into middle life and 
middle life has become old age, what then? Eter- 
nity ! This little span of life is given us to prepare 
for it. Eternity ! This world is but the vestibule to 
it. I am destined to live as long as God shall endure. 
I cannot evade it nor escape from it. 

Eternity? Where will you spend it? It matters 
comparatively little where or how you spend your 
earthly years. After all, the difference is not great 
between poverty and riches, misery and happiness. 
The question of all questions is. Where will you 
spend eternity? Have you not given it all too little 
thought? Is it not folly to live out these golden 
years as if you were going to live forever? Do 
you not think, in view of life's uncertainty and the 
certainty of death, that you ought to settle this 
great question? 

The friend of sinners in the long ago, Jesus 
of Nazareth, came to save you from sin, and to give 
you a home in eternity. " The Son of man is come 
to seek and to save that which was lost." " For 
God so loved the world that he gave his only begot- 



i6o Sane )£vanaelism 

ten Son, that whosoever beHeveth in him should not 
perish, but have everlasting life/' Believe on him, 
trust him, serve him that you may spend eternity in 
his home of love 

In another city the word '' lost," which had 
been so upon the evangelist's mind and heart, was 
put upon one side of a card in letters two inches in 
size, and so arranged as to read, '' The Son of man is 
come to seek and to save that which was lost/' 
Then, just below the word '' lost," which ran the 
whole length of the card, was an invitation to come 
to the church at certain hours to the services. On 
the other side were selected passages of Scripture 
which proved the following statements: 

GOD SAYS 
YOU! 

You are in sin. 

You are condemned. 

You choose helL 

You are to blame. 

You are unhappy. 

You may be saved. 

You must be willing. 

You must repent. 

You must confess. 

You must accept Jesus. 

You must not delay. 

You must follow and obey. 



mietbo&e in lEv^angelism i6i 

In another case a folder was used. The first page 
was used to give the special announcements as to the 
coming services, and this w^as followed by an invita- 
tion to attend. Then the excuses of the people 
were met in these words: 

" COME " 

'' For all things are now ready. And they all with 
one consent began to make excuse." 

The world is full of folks excusing themselves for 
not going to God's house. Do you go to church 
regularly? If not, what is 

YOUR EXCUSE? 

" I'm a stranger.'' Well, strangers are welcome 
at our church. We keep open house; walk in; the 
seats are free. 

'' I'm not a Christian." So much the greater 
need that you hear the gospel. Jesus says, '' They 
that are whole have no need of a physician, but they 
that are sick. I came not to call the righteous, but 
sinners." Jesus invites you to come; v/e press his 
invitation : '' Come thou with us, and we will do 
thee good." 

" I'm not a Baptist." Come along, our doors are 
open to all. We are not a selfish people, charges to 
the contrary notwithstanding. 

'' I'm a Baptist, but don't belong here." Why 



i62 Sane Bpangelism 

don't you belong here ? Don't you live here ? Have 
you tried to have a church home here? Are you 
willing to make this your home, and these people 
your neighbors, and yet say to them by your ac- 
tions, '' I don't care to associate with you in a re- 
ligious way " ? Show the world that you don't 
mean that, by taking your stand with God's people 
where you live. 

'' I'm a member here, but don't go to church 
much." Why not? Have you and the Lord had a 
falling out? Have you decided to serve him no 
longer? God commands his people to go to church, 
to read the Bible, to pray, to love one another, to 
make an offering of their substance every Sunday, 
as he prospers them; has he given you a special 
permit to disregard his commandments ? You know 
he has not ; but he says to you, " Why call ye me 
Lord, Lord, and do not the things which I say? " 

The following card will help to enlist the church : 



Jackson Hill Baptist Church 

Atlanta, Ga. 

Motto: "Every One a Christian, and Every Christian a Sonl Winner" 

RESOLVED— 

^'As a sinner saved hy the Lord Jesus Christ, and trusting 
him for^ strength, I promise him that I will pray daily for a 
revival in my church; that I will cooperate in any wise method 
to secure such a spiritual awakening, and that 1 will personally 

endeavor to lead .... to Christ,'''' 

(Signed) _ 

"And he brought him to Jesus/'— John 1 : 42 



flftetbo&s (n EvauQelism 163 

In a tent meeting in Texas, a cut of the evangelist 
was used on one side of a folder, and on the other 
was given an invitation like this: 



'' The Son of Man is Come 
to Seek and to Save that 
which was 



LOST" 



COME TO THE 

GOSPEL MEETINGS DAILY! 

3.30, 7.30 ^ 

SOUTH SIDE BAPTIST CHURCH 

TENT 

COR. S. FLORES AND RISCHE STREETS 

'■'•Behold^ I Come Quickly, and my 

REWARD 

is with me to give every m.an accord- 
ing as his work shall be^ 



On another folder, used by a church in Kentucky, 



1 64 Sane Bvangelism 

there appeared in red, attractive letters these two 
statements : 



A SURE THING 

*' Be sure your sin will find you out." 
*' Wages of Sin is death." — God. 



JUST AS SURE 

** Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and 
thou shalt be saved." — God. 



A folding card was used very effectively in meet- 
ings in St. Joseph, Mo., and in Tampa, Fla., which, 
when open, read: 



i»s 



«t 



'^"^^ ^ *„ 



'»& 






Hebrews 2:3 

NOTHING! 



foietbo^s in Bvangelism 165 



When closed the card read: 






"»' 86 






Acts 16 : 31, and Romans 10 : 9, 10 

Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and 
confess him before men. 



And then on the back was printed an invitation 
to come to the meetings, as follows : 



COME TO THE 

FIRST BAPTIST CHURCH 

TAMPA, FLA. 



Another card in a Western city asked, ''Are 
you ready to meet God ? '' And then on the other 



1 66 Sane Bvanaelism 

side invited the reader to come. An attractive 
little round card is effective, such as: 

4^ mm ^HH^ ^B*^ #"^P^ \ # " ^^ ■ B ■» 

MEET \ / BAPTIST 
ME / V REVIVAL 

^1^ 



A good invitation, to be mailed as a post-card, 
or enclosed in a letter, is seen in this sample: 



mcferran memori«il Baptist C^bwrcb 

Comer Toum Md Oak Streets 

Rev. WM. WISTAR HAMILTON Th.D., Pastor 



Louisville^ 190 . 

Dear Friend : 

Please accept this as a personal invitation to attend the 
SPECIAL MEETINGS to he conducted hy Rev. FRANCIS 
IV. TAYLOR, at McFerran Church, beginning SEPTEM- 
BER 2'jth. SERVICES will he held each afternoon at ^.00 
and each evening at 7*45. 



" The blood of Jesus Christ his Son cleanseth us from all sin " 



nuetbobs in BvangeUsm 167 

Examples such as these might be multipHed, but, 
after all, the pastor or committee must take the 
method which seems best for the time and place, 
and the one which can be used with enthusiasm. 

3. Organise for the Meetings. Keep in mind the 
fact that the organization is most perfect when it 
makes the least noise. Have everything ready, but 
let everything follow the Spirit's guidance and be 
willing to let any machinery go which is not 
effective. Again let a pastor speak: 

'' We organized for the work. Effort was made 
to provide in advance for every possible exigency. 
A brother was asked to oversee the janitor and the 
building, and to have special care for ventilation. 
Others were to greet the people at the doors, while 
the usual force of ushers was supplemented and 
they were entrusted with the additional duty of 
seeing that the utmost quiet prevailed at every serv- 
ice. A committee was appointed to care for new 
members, another was to report the meetings in the 
daily press. Yet another was to seek new sub- 
scribers for our denominational papers. More than 
sixty such subscribers were secured, besides many 
renewals. 

" We organized with a view to secure permanent 
results from the meeting. A strong committee was 
to seek new pupils for the Sunday-school. As a 
result, our average attendance for five Sundays past 
has been larger than was ever known before. Thus 
every department of the church work had its own 



1 68 Sane Evanaelism 

committee and pressed for new strength. As fast 
as new members came to us they were enHsted in 
suitable Hues of work. 

'' By general and personal invitation we secured 
from fifty people a promise to join the chorus and 
render faithful help in the music of the meeting. 
As a result, when Mr. Wakefield came Saturday 
night to drill the choir, he found forty people on the 
choir platform and a fair-sized audience assembled 
to hear them sing. 

" While the meetings exceeded in volume and 
power all that most of us had expected, the lines of 
preparation and organization were such that it was 
scarcely necessary to readjust them at any point. 
The pastor and evangelist, freed from care of de- 
tails, were able to give themselves to the great 
work of dealing directly with the lost. This careful 
preparation, we may believe, made its own contribu- 
tion to the glorious work which followed, and its 
story is told with simple desire to glorify His name 
through whom it was all accomplished." 

Mr. Robertson says : '' The pastor should thor- 
oughly organize his people, and have at least six 
departments entrusted to special committees, each 
church having its own committees in case there 
should be a co-operative movement. These depart- 
ments may be classified as follows : ( i ) The Re- 
ligious Census. The duties of the committee to 
which this work should be entrusted is to make a 
house-to-house visitation of the church community 



finetbo5s in Bvangelism 169 

to obtain a religious census of the same. This cen- 
sus should show the spiritual condition and church 
affiliation of every person in the community, and 
from it a special list of the names of all the uncon- 
verted people should be made. This canvass can 
be made in the country as well as in the towns and 
cities. The visitors should use specially prepared 
cards in this work. However, this is not abso- 
lutely necessary. A simple notebook will answer 
the purpose. (2) The Invitation Department. 
There should be given by this committee a general 
invitation to all the people of the community to at- 
tend the meetings, and in doing this the committee 
should use the papers, place cards in the windows 
of the places of business, tack them up on posts and 
trees where they can be readily seen, and hand small 
cards to individuals, and distribute them from door 
to door. There should be given to every uncon- 
verted person of the community a special invitation 
to attend the special meetings. This should be done 
either by visitation or through a personal letter pre- 
pared by the pastor and sent out by the committee. 
In this personal invitation work the committee 
should include the backsliders of the church, or 
churches. (3) The Personal Comfort Department. 
The place of meeting should be made comfortable in 
every respect, comfortably seated and well ventilated 
so that the people may become neither restless nor 
sleepy. Of course this will require much attention 
and labor on the part of the committee, but never- 



I70 Sane Bvanaelism 

theless it should be done, and the committee should 
have the co-operation of all the members of the 
church in doing this work. (4) The Music Com- 
mittee, whose duty it should be to secure the organ- 
ization and the training of a special evangelistic 
chorus for the meetings. The songs that should 
be used are those whose sentiment moves the soul 
to repentance and consecration, and whose teachings 
are thoroughly scriptural. The special chorus 
should meet two or three weeks before the meetings 
begin, and learn to sing the best gospel hymns with 
spirit and enthusiasm. It is always best to have a 
chorister to lead the singing in evangelistic meet- 
ings. We cannot place too much emphasis on the 
music in such efforts. (5) The Personal Workers' 
Department. This work of enlisting and training 
personal workers will have to be done by the pastor, 
but those who become enlisted in this personal work 
should constitute a special committee, with a trained 
and hustling worker as chairman. The male mem- 
bers of this committee should have charge of the 
ushering during the meetings. The pastor should 
so train all these workers in dealing with individual 
sinners that they may be prepared and ready to 
seize every opportunity to speak to and pray with a 
lost sinner anywhere. They should know how to 
use tracts and be well supplied with them all the 
time, and when a sinner enters the house the worker 
should hand him a suitable tract and show him 
other special courtesies. Workers also should strive 



mietbo&s in Evangelism 171 

to locate every unconverted person in the house, so 
that when an opportunity is given they may be able 
to go and speak to these about their soul's salva- 
tion. They should get the name and address of 
every one who manifests any interest, and follow 
each up in the interim, and whenever any sinner 
becomes ready for an interview with the pastor, 
they should see that such an interview is had. 
Special emphasis should be placed on the oppor- 
tunities afforded the women for doing personal 
work, and their ability to do such work. (6) 
The Prayer Service. There should be made con- 
stant appeals for each individual to pray daily for a 
spiritual awakening. There should be held in every 
part of the community cottage prayer meetings, and 
it would be well if such a prayer service could be 
held in every home represented in the membership 
of the church, before the special meetings begin. 
Wherever this plan has been followed a great revival 
has been experienced. Every true revival is prayed 
down, and not worked up. The Christian people 
should be made to realize their helplessness in this 
evangelistic work and be brought to their knees in 
earnest, fervent prayer for the heaven-born revival." 
Put up a thirty-foot streamer above the pulpit in 
big letters, '' With Christ or Against Him ? '' 
and keep before church-members and all the question 
as to whether their home life and school and busi- 
ness and political and social life are helping or 
hindering Christ's kingdom. 



1 7 2 Sane Bvanaelism 



A blank suitable for use in a census is as follows : 



Patee ParK BaDiist e>Ut(b 



Street -. No.. 

Name — • 

Attend Church ? 

Denomination? — •- 

Membership where ? 

Number not church-members? 

Number in family S. S. age 

Number in family attending S. S ~ 

Remarks ». 

Name of worker 



Such a census should be planned by the pastor 
and carried out in two or three hours, all meeting at 
the church for instruction and prayer, and each 
having a definite district to cover. 

4. Organise and Train Workers, The objection 
is not a new one, that v/e cannot give a set rule for 



flUetboDs in JEvanaelism 173 

dealing with the lost. The objection is well made, 
but fails to see the necessity of being trained and 
ready for God to use. The same argument could 
be brought against every sort of preparation for the 
ministry, for missionary work, for teaching, and all 
the rest. We cannot expect efficiency in medicine 
merely from experience. The theoretical knowl- 
edge must go along with the practical. '' Give dili- 
gence to present thyself approved unto God, a work- 
man that needeth not to be ashamed, handling aright 
the word of truth/' We must know how to " cut 
to fit," how to '' rightly divide '' the word of truth, 
so that when an opportunity presents itself to do 
work for the Master, we may not be ashamed of our 
inability to handle the Bible. 

" We trained a band of personal workers. More 
than fifty m.en and women studied for weeks such 
questions as, ' How to approach the lost,' ' How 
and where to hold conversation with sinners,' 
' Scriptures which bring conviction,' ' Scriptures 
which point to Christ,' and ' Scriptures which an- 
swer objectors and excuse-makers.' " 

Give them for outdoor use some such card as 
this : 



"pOD IS LOVE" 

^L^l THE EVIDENCE- 

" Christ died for the ungodly." 
(Over) —Rom. 5 : 6 



174 Sane Bvanaelism 

Cards for enlisting workers, and also for admit- 
ting to the place of worship, are sometimes used. 
For example : 



To the Executive Committee of 

The Falls Cities' Evangelistic Campaign 

Dear Brethren : 

You may rely upon me to aid in the Evangelistic 
Campaign as a 

Personal Worker 

Singer 

Usher 



FALLS CITIES' EVANGELISTIC CAMPAIGN 

FOR LOUISVILLE, NEW ALBANY, AND JEFFERSONVILLE 



OFFICE OF EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE 

Y. M. C. A. Building, Louisville, Ky. 



Personal Workers* Card 

Dear Christian Friend:— 

You are duly commissioned as a personal worker at-. 



Your business will be to help souls to find Christ. Much depends 
upon you. God may use you to win a soul. Pray earnestly ; attend 
all the meetings you can and always be ready to do your part. 
Please read carefully the instructions. 

(OVER) 



filetbo&B in ^evangelism 175 

On the reverse side of this card are printed the 
instructions to the workers : 



INSTRUCTIONS TO PERSONAL WORKERS 



1. Be present one-half hour before the service is to begin, for a 
season of prayer. 

2. Work in your own section only. 

3. Reserve the first sitting in your section for yourself. 

4. Do not leave your section at any time during the service. 

5. Always have a good supply of pencils and inquirer's cards in 
your possession. 

6. Use cards as directed by Evangelist. 

7. Watch for inquirers in your section, and guide all your people 
into the after-meeting. 

8. Speak personally to any who are not Christians, and extend 
to them the free offer of salvation. 

9. Pray for God's blessing upon the work, and follow these 
instructions without deviation. 



A Virginia pastor prepared a small printed sheet 
with a few passages which gave God's answer to 
the difficulties of those seeking Christ, and met them 
once a week for two or three months, and then dur- 
ing the meetings met them every evening just before 
the evening service for prayer and counsel. From 
the first meeting people were saved, crowds gathered 
and would wait at the doors until some went away 
from the after-meeting and then come in to get their 
seats. The workers placed over the church would 
go at once to those who manifested interest; the 
Lord saved multitudes of people, and the whole 



176 Sane Bvanselism 

city was moved by the power of God. Many 
churches fail of a blessing because they do not ex- 
pect it, and therefore do not '' attempt great things 
for God." 

Urge the workers to use and have faith in the 
word of God. Evangelist Geo. C. Gates insists that 
the workers shall pray, give to the lost one the 
" naked word of God," then pray again ; not argue, 
not give their own ideas, but use the word of 
God. Insist that these who covenant together 
for work shall not discuss side issues, or hurry 
matters, or show impatience, or trust to their own 
wisdom. He who would be most successful as a 
soul-winner must get right with God and with his 
fellow-men, must consider the condition of a soul 
that is lost, must consider his own responsibility, 
must pray for deep and genuine concern for the lost, 
must have a working knowledge of the word, must 
rely upon God for wisdom and power, and must 
learn how to do the work by doing it. 

Some one of the many personal workers' books 
may be helpful, but any pastor or worker can ar- 
range a few passages which can be memorized and 
which can be readily turned to in the Bible. A 
short drill in locating and repeating together these 
selected verses would require but a few minutes at 
the meeting of the class, or at prayer meeting, or 
at the Sunday service, and God would possibly use 
that very repeating of the Scripture to convict and 
save some careless hearer. Do this in your own 



flUetbo&s in lEvanQclism 177 

way, but do not fail to do it. As Dr. J. Wilbur 
Chapman says : '' Always use God's word, and if 
your experience is quoted at all let it be used to 
emphasize the Scripture/' 

5. Have Good Singing. Place emphasis on the 
" good." By this is not meant '' artistic " singing. 
Evangelistic singing has its own special place, and is 
just as fitting and just as essential, and is just as help- 
ful as any other department of the work. Classical 
music has its place, but that place is not in a re- 
vival. Such music, however good, is as much out of 
place there as it would be to play a funeral march at 
a wedding or to have an orchestra at a prayer 
meeting. A good chorus, led by a good leader, 
will not only help bring the people to the church, 
will not only put the audience in good spirit for the 
preaching by the spirited or spiritual singing, but 
will be used of God in helping to decision those 
who are wavering between life and death by their 
prayerful plea in song. In an after-meeting a chorus 
singing softly and pleadingly, " There is a Fountain 
Filled With Blood," or " Just as I Am," or " I Am 
Coming, Lord," or "Why Not Now?" or "Jesus, 
I Come," or some of the other many invitation 
hymns, has helped many, many struggling souls to 
surrender. Sometimes a song, started without the 
instrument and when the meeting seemed about to 
fail, has helped to create the atmosphere in which 
decisions were made. Over and over again, when 
the impression has come, a gospel solo or duet has 

M 



178 



Sane Bvangelfsm 



been asked for and the people have been called 
upon to accept Christ quietly, rising and coming for- 
ward at any time during the song. We are not to 
have a concert or a singing school, but a band of 
consecrated people who will sing the gospel. 

The chorus leader should send on to the pastor 
a paper for the singers to sign, and ask the pastor to 
appoint a committee of one or two to get the sig- 
natures of those who are willing to render this 
service. This will avoid any general invitation, 
will keep out objectionable voices or characters, and 
will place upon those who sign it an obligation 
to be present. The paper should read somewhat 
as follows: 



CHOIR MEMBERSHIP 

We, the undersigned, agree to sing in the chorus 
choir led by Mr. and Mrs. A. D. George during the 
special evangelistic meetings to be held in the Taber- 
nacle Baptist Church, Raleigh, N. C, beginning Sun- 
day, March 8, 1908. 


NAME 


SOPRANO 


ALTO 


TENOR 


BASS 















































f§letbot)5 in EvartQelfsm 179 

A badge or button for the members of the choir 
is a good way to add interest and to increase faith- 
fulness. 

The instruments used and those who play them 
will have much to do with the success of the sing- 
ing. As a general rule, have all the instruments 
you can, but see to it that those who play them 
have the success of the meeting and the saving of 
souls at heart. We may praise God on any sort of 
an instrument if the one who plays it has a heart 
filled with praise and a life which makes the worship 
acceptable. Of course, rehearsals should be con- 
ducted for some days before the meetings begin, and 
occasionally after an evening's service, or at some 
special hour. 

A pastor says : '' The nature of the singing will 
have much to do with the success of a special 
evangelistic eflfort. It should always be led by a 
chorister who is a consecrated Christian, and the 
singing should be lively and spirited, with all the 
people taking part. The chorister or chorus may 
now and then sing a special evangelistic selection, 
but as a rule it is best to lead the great congrega- 
tion in congregational singing. If you can get the 
people to singing good gospel hymns it will pre- 
pare their hearts and minds for the reception of the 
message." 

6. Pray for the Meetings. Too much cannot be 
said on this subject. There should be the enlisting 
of the church in definite prayer for individuals, for 



i8o Sane Evangelism 

classes, for the helpers, for the loved ones, for 
Sunday-school classes, for the pastor, and church, 
and community. 

Sometimes a prayer list on card or thin paper 
may get the names of the lost before the prayer 
circles and the workers. Such a one as the follow- 
ing has been used effectively: 



PRAYER LIST 

OF 

Name 

Address 

God helping me, I will pray daily and work earnestly 
for the salvation of the following persons : 

Name 

Address — — 

Remarks ~ 

Name 

Address 

Remarks 

Name 

Address 

Remarks 

Name 

Address 

Remarks 

Keep this in your Bible, and give a copy to the pastor. 



finetbo&s in jEvanaelism iSi 

Perhaps a better plan still is to have a card with 
space for only one name, and then this card can be 
given just as it is to some worker who can bring 
it back with report as to success or failure, and the 
card be given to another worker for the next day. 
Such cards as these may be used: 



** Choose ye this day whom yog will serve/* 

Realizing my need of Christ as Saviour, 
I hereby express my desire to be a Christian, 
and ask the prayers of God's people. 

Name.„.„ ......„^ „^..„... „ 

Address ^..... ...^ .„_ 



DAILY PRAYER 

O Lord, send a revival, and if it pleases thee, be- 
gin with me, for Jesus' sake. Amen. 

Preparation : 2 Chron. 7 : 14. 

Promises to plead : Luke 24 : 49 ; Acts 1-8. 

Results to follow : Acts 2 : 4. 4ii 47. 

Name „ 

God helping me, I will pray earnestly and work faith- 
fully for the salvation of the following person : 

Name „ ...„ ._ 

Address 

Remarks „ 

Return to the Pastor 



i82 Sane Bvan^elfsm 



•' If two of you shall on earth agree as touching anything that 
they shall ask, it shall be done for them."— Matt. i8: 19. 

Please write the name and address of one for whose 
salvation you and I shall agree to pray continually, on 
the first blank line below and your name on the second. 

Name 

Address „ _ 

Remarks 

Name of Worker.... 

I need your help to win souls for Christ ; you need 
the blessing it will bring to you. May the Holy Spirit 
use us. 

Please return this card to me as promptly as possible, 
or place it upon the collection basket on Sunday. Let 
us both use also every available means to lead that per- 
son to Christ. Affectionately your pastor, 
[OVER] Claude W. Duke. 



One evangelist has v^hat he calls a " Book of 
Life/' and another a " Book of Death." In the 
book of death he puts the names of all those who 
are lost and for whom the Christians are praying 
and working. Their names are transferred to the 
book of Hfe when they have accepted or confessed 
Christ, and public mention is made of the name and 
the change. 

Particularly where churches are to unite in a con- 
certed or union effort, a " call to prayer " should be 
issued some weeks in advance. This was done 
in a campaign in Atlanta, Ga., and was as follows: 



nHetbo5s in SEvangelism 183 



'.And It shall come to pass that, before they call, I will answer; 
and while they are yet speakine, I will hear." 



Concerted Baptist 
Evangelistic Cannpaign 

Atlanta, Ga. 



Call to Prayer 

DEARLY BELOVED : 

God, in his providence, has led all our Baptist Churches to unite in a General 
Revival Movement during the month of April, 1908. The need for such a movement 
is apparent, and the blessings to be derived are incalculable. The work as a whole 
is to be under the direction of the Evangelistic Department of the Home Mission 
Board, Rev. W. W. Hamilton, D. D., General Evangelist, assisted by a staff of 
able workers. It onh' needs that God's children prepare themselves, through prayer 
and true contrition, for taking their part in this great work. 

"We, therefore, the pastors of the churches, do most earnestly call upon the mem- 
bers of all our churches in Atlanta and vicinity, as well as upon all Christian people 
in the city, end those in other places who love the Lord and desire the salvation of 
the lost, to join us in constant supplication for divine mercy and grace, and to 



Pray 



That our people may earnestly, faithfully, unitedly, wisely, and successfully plan 
and labor for the redemption of the perishing thousands among us who are 
without hope and without God in the world. 

That the spirit of prayer may characterize our people and that they may give them- 
selves no rest till God gives our city a gracious revival. 

That we, your pastors, may be true pastors indeed, men of prayer, instant in sea- 
son, out of season. 

That the evangelists and leaders may be filled with the Spirit of God, directed and 
helped in word and work, speaking in demonstration of the Spirit, and of 
power. 

That lost men and women may see their need of salvation and may be willing to 
turn to God for pardon through our Lord and Saviour, Jesus Christ. 

That the Spirit of truth may be present in every service in every church, con- 
vincing men in respect of sin, righteousness, 'and of judgment, turning their 
hearts toward Jesus Christ as the Saviour of the lost. 

That the name of Jesus may be greatly glorified through the salvation of the lost, 
and that his kingdom may come in thousands of surrendered hearts. 
Let these be the subjects of daily petition in our secret prayer, family devotions, 

cottage meetings, and all gatherings of the people of God for public worship. All 

our help must come from above, for it is not by might nor by power that this move- 
ment is to succeed but by the Spirit of God. 

Yours in the covenant of prayer, 

W. A. BABB H. C. HURLEY JNO. F. PURSER 

W. H. BELL JXO. D. JORDAN GEO. T. ROE 

JNO. E. BRIGGS W. W. LANDRUM B. G. SMITH 

LEN G. BROUGHTON JUNIUS W. MILLARD A. C. WARD 

C. N. DONALDSON R. L. MOTLEY JNO. E. WHITE 

D. S. EDENFIELD V. C. NORCROSS J. D. WINCHESTER 
T. E. ELGIN C. C. PUGH 



"Te also helping together by prayer." 



1 84 Sane BvanQelism 

Cottage prayer meetings should be held in every 
district in the community at least once each week 
for a month preceding, and during the last week 
there should be gatherings for prayer every night, 
either in the homes or in the churches. A post- 
card has been used effectively in announcing such 
gatherings. 



The Ministers'* Evangelistic Committee of Louisville^ 

New Albany^ and Jeffersonville has called upon all Chris- 
tians to pray for a spiritual revival in our cities » 

There will he a meeting for prayer at my house 

Street^ at o"* clock. 



on of this week. We shall he 

glad to have you and any friends you can hring meet with us. 
Very cordially yours. 



Doctor Chapman says, in speaking of these cot- 
tage meetings : " Three evenings of each week 
should be occupied with these prayer meetings, and 
so arranged as not to conflict with the mid-week 
church prayer meeting. Friday evening can be 
given to chorus rehearsals. Ten to twenty prayer 
meetings can be arranged in each district for Mon- 
day evening of each week, and may be conveniently 
conducted under the direction of the young people's 
societies, etc., who shall be expected to furnish lead- 
ers, etc. The same number for Tuesday evening 



niletbo&s in Evangelism 185 

and for Thursday evening, using for one evening 
the church officers as leaders, and Thursday eve- 
nings using the ladies' missionary societies. By a 
thorough work of this character the home Hfe of 
every family in the community will be touched, and 
the evangelist is sure that the revival has already 
begun when the prayer in the home is systematically 
and earnestly made for the movement." 

7. The Conduct of the Meetings, This is a most 
difficult point to discuss. One of our best-known, 
most sane, and most successful evangelists says: 
" I am frequently asked by pastors what method is 
used in the meetings to be conducted. This is a 
perfectly natural question, but I am not prepared at 
this time to answer it so far as it may relate to in- 
dividual cities. I have learned during the past three 
or four years that it is a most unwise thing to 
hold to any stereotyped method. That which is most 
effective in one city may utterly fail in another." 

Another says : '' The pastors, evangelists, and 
workers should ahvays recognize the Lord Jesus 
Christ as their General, who will lead them to 
victory by his Spirit. Many a battle against sin and 
the devil has been lost because the army did not 
listen to the orders of their General. The victories 
of the people of God on the day of Pentecost, in 
the great reformation in Europe initiated by Luther 
and his associates, in the spiritual awakening in 
England led by the Wesleys and Whitefield, in the 
recent Welsh revival inaugurated by Evan Roberts 



1 86 Sane Bvangelfsm 

— all of these spiritual and heavenly victories were 
the results of the leadership of the Lord through 
the fulness of his indwelHng Holy Spirit. So the 
pastor, evangelist, and workers of to-day must sur- 
render themselves to the Lord to be led by him 
through his Spirit unto victory/' 

*' Where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is 
liberty," not for us to do as we please, but for God 
to do as he pleases, and that meeting will be most 
effective which is yielded most thoroughly to him. 
The evangelist and pastor and workers should be 
ready to yield any plan they may have, and obey 
the suggestion of the moment. Every worker knows 
that the best and most far-reaching effects have 
come when these suggestions are obeyed. We 
pray for the Spirit's guidance, and we should ex- 
pect the answer and obey when the answer comes. 
If it be to change the theme, to stop the sermon 
and pray, to leave out the sermon altogether, to 
pause between verses of a song and pray for the 
man or woman who is struggling against God, 
to go to an individual in the audience, to ask for 
decisions without any singing, to ask the lost to 
come forward for prayer, to tarry after the usual 
hour for praise or counsel or confession or inter- 
cession, whatever seems to be the thing to be done 
at the moment, obey and do it. 

Cottage services should be continued during the 
time of the revival and extra services for men in 
the stores downtown, shop meetings, factory meet- 



mietbobs in JEvanselism 187 

ings, street services, saloon services, and special 
gatherings for men, or women, or young people, or 
children, may be held. 

Special days have been used most effectively, such 
as '' Old Folks' Day," " Children's Day," '' Work- 
ers' Day," " Harvest Day," " Day of Fasting and 
Prayer," "Students' Day," "Farmers' Day," and 
many others. The " Farmers' Day," with dinner 
served picnic style, will be sure to enlist the 
people living out in the country. A large poster 
distributed on " Court Day " to the farmers, with 
the request that they put them up at their homes 
where those passing can see them, will be an effect- 
ive way of getting such a service advertised. Some 
such wording as this : 



FARMERS' DAY 



SATURDAY, SEPT. 21st 

10 A. M. to 4 P. M. 

SHELBYVILLE BAPTIST CHURCH 

SINGING .-. PREACHING .'. DINNER 

Old Folks' Meeting 



COME BRING YOUR DINNER 
AND ALL THE FAMILY 



i88 



Sane Evangelism 



Special invitations to special services are always 
helpful, and particularly does this seem true as to 
meetings for men. Only two samples of such are 
given here: 



U 



o 

Oil 

to < 



To NIkn Only 



A SEARCHn^G APPEAL TO MEN 

AT THE 

First Baptist Church 

Sunday, March 3cl, at 4 p.m. 

BY REV. W. W. HAMILTON, D. D. 

Under the auspices of the BAEACAS 

Music by Baracas Choir and Orchestra, conducted by 
Rev. W. D. Wakefield, of Atlanta 



MEN 

Juke the 7th at 4 p. m. 

Baptist Church 
COME 



An order of service for a day of fasting and 
prayer is helpful in getting many to begin the day 



fiHetbo&s In Evanaelism 189 

with prayer, and to establish the family altar, as well 
as to spend a full day in service. One such day is 
shown in the following: 



F« 


isting and Prayer 


Matthew 6 : 1 


16.18: LuKe 5:33-35; Acts 14:23; Titus 1:5 


Ordei? of Services 


Fori 

7.00 A. M. 


Oec. 16, I9O6. Pensacola, Fla. 


Secret Prayer, Morning Watch. 


8.00 " 


Family Prayer in all Homes. 


9.00 " 


Prayer Meeting of S. S. Workers. 


9.30 '* 


Gathering of Sunday Schools. 


10 00 *' 


Evangelistic Service in S. S. 


11.00 " 


Preaching, First Baptist Church, W. W. Hamilton. 


11.00 " 


Preaching, West Hill Church, W. D. Wakefield. 


i.ooP.M. 


Waiting before God— Meditation. 


2.00 " 


"How to Pray," T. M. Callaway. 


3.00 " 


Children's Meeting, W. D. Wakefield. 


4.00 " 


" What to Pray For," J. W. Senterfitt. 


S-oo " 


" My Experience." Testimonies. 


6.00 " 


''Does it Pay to be a Christian?" 


7.00 " 


Blood Bought Band. Prayer. 


7.30 - 


Song Service, W. D. Wakefield. 


8.00 " 


Union Evangelistic Service. 


9.00 " 


Enquirer's Meeting. 


10.00 " 


Praise and Thanksgiving. 


^* Bless the Lord, O My Soul." \ 




[overI 



Sometimes a workers' meeting, to which neigh- 
boring pastors and congregations are invited, will 
not only increase attendance and interest, but will 



I90 Sane Epanaeliam 



start the fires to burning in other communities. 
Such a programme is given : 



Olorkerr Conference 

Co H Deia wm tbe !)dziel)ur$t Baptist CDtircb 

June 9 

in (onnection with tbe Special nicetind$ 



lo.oo A. M. Praise Service, conducted by A. D. George. 

10.30 A. M. " Preparation of the Pastor for a Revival." W. P. 

Price. 
10.45 A. M. *' Preparation of the Church." W. E. Farr. 
11.00 A. M. " The Preaching of a Revival." I. H. Anding. 
II. 15 A. M. " Drawing the Net." W. W. Hamilton. 

These addresses will be followed by an open conference. 
3.00 P. M. Testimony Meeting, led by A. D. George. 
3.15 P. M. " Duty of Personal Work." R. L. Bunyard. 
3.30 P. M. '^Privilege of Personal Work." W. F. Yarborough. 

3.45 P. M. " Personal Worker's Helpers : (a) Conscience ; (&) 
Bible; (c) Holy Spirit." G. W. Riley. 

4.00 P. M. " Jesus Our Example as a Personal Worker." W. W. 
Hamilton. Open conference. 

7.45 P. M. Song Service. 

8.00 P. M. Evangelistic Service. 



In a general campaign the forces should all be 
united in some general gatherings. The following 
letter shows how this was sought in a concerted 
campaign : 



fnietbo&s in Evanaellsm 191 



DEAR PASTOR : LOUISVILLE. Kv.. February ,. .905. 

I rejoice with you in the promise of a wide-spread revival of 
religion in Louisville. God has opened the windows of heaven 
upon other cities, and surely we may claim a similar blessing here. 
Much faithful preparatory work has already been done. In the 
secret closet, at the family altar, and in the public assembly, ear- 
nest prayer has been offered up for the salvation of many people. 
God has never yet disappointed the earnest desire of his servants 
for his glory, and for the salvation of the world. I write in behalf 
of the committee in charge of the present movement, to request that 
each pastor urge upon his people the dut\', at this time, of personal 
consecration, and importunate prayer, and personal work. 

Let the watchword of the campaign be, that each church-mem- 
ber shall try to win at least one soul for Christ. Such an effort on 
the part of the church people would, of itself, result in a great in- 
gathering. 

Next Sabbath afternoon, at three o'clock, there will be a re- 
hearsal of all the chorus singers, to be led by Mr. Benjamin Frank- 
lin Butts, of Pittsburgh, Pa. It is very important that each church 
be represented by a choir of singers at this first rehearsal. It will 
be held in the Warren Memorial Church, at Fourth and Broadway. 

A meeting will also be held next Sabbath afternoon, at 4.30, in 
the Y. M. C. A. Lecture Room, for all who have promised, or will 
agree to engage as personal workers. This will also be an impor- 
tant meeting, and it is essential that each church send a representa- 
tion of its members. I desire to meet with all the personal workers 
at this time for conference. The meeting will also be addressed by 
Dr. A. H. Jolly and Mr. W. I. McNair. 

There will be a meeting for men only, at the Masonic Theater, 
on Sabbath afternoon at 3 o'clock, to be addressed by Mr. Ferd 
Schiverea, an evangelist of great power and full of the Holy Ghost, 
God has greatly blessed this man in all parts of the country. 

The Ministers' Meeting on Monday morning, I am requested to 
say, will be with special reference to the evangelistic campaign now 
being inaugurated. This meeting v/ill be devoted to prayer and 
conference. 

It is also suggested that each pastor take an offering at the 
morning service of February 12, for the Finance Committee, of 
which Mr. J. Lithgow Smith is treasurer. 

If no report has been made to the Executive Committee of per- 
sonal workers and chorus singers for your congregation, will you 
kindly send list of names at your earliest convenience. It is desired 
to furnish these persons with appropriate badges. 

Rejoicing in the co-operation of so many pastors and churches 
in the work of evangelizing the city, I am. 

Faithfully yours, 

Joseph P. Calhoun, 

E'uangelist. 



In the Atlanta campaign, a union day service 
was held each day at noon, preceded by a half-hour 
of prayer, and reports were received from the many 



192 Sane jEvanaelism 

churches engaged in the campaign. This was the 
unifying service and kept all the workers in touch 
with each other, and informed as to the progress 
being made. Such a service may, in some place, 
culminate in one special day of prayer when all 
business houses will close. The committee, in visit- 
ing the merchants, would do well to carry with them 
a window card, something like one used in Wilming- 
ton, N. C. 



This House will, be CXiOSED during the 
KooN Hour— 12 to 1 o'ci^ock 

WEDNESDAY 



ACCOUNT OF 



BOSIMS MN'S PMIEE MifflG 



FIRST BAPTIST CHURCH 



All-night prayer meetings have been the occasions 
of unusual blessing, and have shown God's willing- 
ness to answer the prayers of his people. These are 
not held to besiege God and conquer his reluctance, 
but to have time to take the names of the lost and 
pray for them by name, and to tarry before the 
Lord and take advantage of bis willingness. In one 



niletbo5s in Evanaelfsm 193 

case two hundred and sixty people were present at 
midnight, a sermon on consecration was preached 
about two in the morning, and later on thirty-two 
young men and women came forward, saying that 
they had decided or were considering the call to 
special work for the Lord, either as ministers or as 
missionaries. During the night men for whom 
prayer was being made came from their beds to 
ask help and to surrender to Christ. In another 
city fifty such young men and women stood about 
the pastor at the closing hour while the pastor led in 
prayer for them. 

In seeking to help the lost who may be in the 
service, every evangelist or pastor will follow the 
plan suggested at the time. It is well to hav^e work- 
ers stationed over the house, and have them see to 
it that no interested one shall go away without an 
effort to help. They will see those who rise for 
prayer near them, or those who remain seated when 
Christians are requested to stand. It is well some- 
times to ask those who desire the help of the Chris- 
tian workers to remain seated. To do this is to 
indicate interest, to invite conversation and prayer, 
and to avoid much of the seeming embarrassment 
which the more timid so dread. 

Many forms of cards are used for getting the 
decision and names of those interested. They are 
usually helpful if they are not given too much prom- 
inence. They furnish the pastor and his helpers in- 
formation on which to follow up during or after the 

N 



194 Sane Evanaeltsm 

meetings those who have been blessed and who 
should go forward in active service or in renewed 
consecration. Some samples are here given. 



Wanderer's Confession 

I have not been faithful to my duties as a Christian, 
and have drifted into coldness and sin. I confess this 
with sorrow, and desire to renew my covenant with my 
Saviour. 

V^ame 

tAddress . — — 

zMjy membership is at 

Church Member's Purpose 

I am a child of God and a member of the church, 
but not at this place. It is my purpose to unite here. 

^TVa^w^ 

t/Jddress - 

zMjy home church is 

Worker's Request 

Please join me in praying and working for 

tl(ame - 

tAddress 

T{emarks -~ 



t7{ame of IVorker 

(over) 



nnetboDs in Bvanaelism 195 



Sinner's Decision 

Seeing myself a lost soul, I repent of my sins, and 
believe that God forgives me for the sake of Christ, 
whom I receive as my Saviour and Lord. I desire to 
be baptized in the name of the Father, Son, and Holy 
Ghost, and will endeavor by God's help, to lead a life 
devoted to Christ and his cause. 



^Address . 



Date Church Tref erred.. 



Luke 13:3; Acts 20 : 21 ; John 3 : 16 ; i : 12 ; Matt. 3 : 15 ; Rom. 
6:4; Acts 10 : 48 ; John 14 : 21. 



Sinner's Request 

I am not a child of God, am lost and in sin, but 
want to be saved. Pray for me. 



U^ame — 

t/lddress . 

Remarks.. 



R jm. 3 : 23 ; 6 : 23 ; John 3 : 13, 36 ; Matt. 12 : 30 ; Isaiah 53 : 6. 



Sign and return to W. W. Hamilton. 

(over) 



196 Sane Bvanaelism 



MY DECISION 

With repentance toward God, I accept Jesus Christ 
as my Saviour and Lord, and 1 will endeavor hence- 
forth to follow his example and obey his commands. 

Name 

Address 

Church Preferred „ 



Are You a Church Member?.. 



1. Confess Him publicly as your Lord. Rom. 10 : 9, 10. 

2. Follow Him in baptism. Matt. 3 : 15 ; Rom. 6 : 4. 

3. Work for Him as the way opens. James 1 : 22. 

4. Worship with His people. Heb. 10 : 24, 25. 

5. Study His word and pray. 2 Tim. 3 : 16 ; Matt, 6 : 6. 

6. Confess when wi-ong has been done. 1 John 1 : 9. 

7. Press onward and upward. Phil. 3 : 13, 14. 

8. Seek to win others. Matt. 4 : 19 ; John 20 : 21. 



" If ye love me, keep my 
)- commandments." 

John 14 : 15. 



[over] 



LL have sinned," Rom. 3 : 23. "Wages of sin is death," Rom. 

^ 6 : 23. "Into the unquenchable fire," Mark 9 : 43. "Where 

their worm dieth not," Mark g : 48. "Forever and ever and 

they have no rest day nor night," Rev. 14 : n. "Repented 

not of their deeds," Rev. 16 : 11. 



B 



ELIEVE on the Lord Jesus," Acts 16 : 31. " As many as re- 
ceived him," John i : 12. "He that believeth on him is not 
condemned, but he that believeth not is condemned already, 
because he hath not believed," John 3 : 18. " Without shed- 
ding of blood is no remission," Heb. 9 : 22. 



COME unto me," Matt, it ; 28. " Whosoever will," Rev. 22 : 11. 
"Repentance toward God and faith toward our Lord Jesus 
Christ," Acts 20 : 21. " Him that cometh to me I will in no 
wise cast out," John 6 : 37. 



"FOR GOD SO LOVED THE WORLD 

that he gave his only begotten Son, '.hat whosoever believeth in 
him should not perish but have everlasting life," John 3 : 16. 

[OVER] 



nuetbo^s in JEvanaelism 197 



THE SON OF MAN IS COME TO SEEK AND TO 
SAVE THAT WHICH WAS 



LOST 



COME to the MEETINGS at the FIRST BAPTIST 
CHURCH, 3.00 P. M., r.OO P. M. 



X 

CARING FOR YOUNG CONVERTS 

BY W. W. HAMILTON 



X 
CARING FOR YOUNG CONVERTS 

THE first month with the new convert will usu- 
ally determine what his life is going to be. 
The evangeUst is often blamed for the failure of the 
new members in their church Hfe, when the failure 
was due to the neglect and the inefficiency of those 
into whose fellowship these new converts came. 
Doctor Broadus used to tell that he once asked an 
old Negro man why it was that oxen always walked 
slow. The reply was, " I doan know, Boss, cep'n 
dat dey always breaks de young oxens in wid de ole 
oxens. De ole oxens walks slow and dey teaches de 
young uns to walk slow." If the young converts 
walk slow in their Christian experience, it is more 
than likely because their older Christian associates 
teach them to do so by their own habits of life and 
service. 

I. Atmosphere. The first thing then In taking 
care of young converts is to have a helpful church 
atmosphere into which to bring them. Many new 
converts stop outside the church, lose the joy of 
their salvation, lose years of service and usefulness 
and growth and reward because those of us who 
have learned to walk slow are cold and indifferent 

20I 



202 Sane Bvanaelism 

and critical. The time of all times when a babe in 
Christ needs attention and encouragement is in the 
first days of the new life. 

Parents often feel that they must put their chil- 
dren, when they manifest interest in salvation, to 
the test of not only living without their encourage- 
ment, but of overcoming the parental indifference 
or opposition. Suppose that the father and mother 
should say of the new-born babe, '' Now we will 
test you, and see if you can live for a month without 
any help from us ; and if you get along without us, 
then we will help you." It is even more cruel to 
test a babe in Christ thus. Instead of telling the 
child that he does not understand about spiritual 
things, the parents should use this God-given oppor- 
tunity, this time of interest, and lead the inquiring 
one into the light and into surrender and service. 
It is here that homes and parents often fail, and the 
church and pastor and teacher have the added obli- 
gation of encouraging and helping those who have 
begun the Christian life. 

Pastors and evangelists will do well to lay stress 
upon this duty of the church to the young con- 
verts. Enthusiasm is like the measles — if the 
church-members have enthusiasm it will break out 
on them, and if it breaks out on them the young 
converts will be sure to catch it. 

One of our pastors in a Western city has a 
praise service at the beginning of the Sunday morn- 
ing hour, in which the members stand one by one 



Caring for l^oung Converts 203 

to quote some verse of Scripture, or give some ex- 
perience, or to testify of God's love and grace. At 
the close of the night service the audience is dis- 
missed, and those who so desire tarry for the after- 
meeting, and the day is closed as it began, in prayer 
and praise and testimony. In these services the 
young Christians take part and begin their life of 
service. If some are baptized at the close of the 
night service, they are expected to come as soon 
as they can into the after-meeting, and are there 
called upon for prayer and for testimony. It de- 
pends much upon how the church-membership takes 
religion as to whether the new members will regard 
it as a '' dose," a '' duty,'' or a " delight." 

2. Food. Three things are essential to good 
physical health, good atmosphere, good food, and 
good exercise. It is necessary that the new mem- 
bers should have good food and plenty of it, and 
that pastor will do much to make the people spiritual 
and strong who feeds them on milk and leads them 
on to strong meat. 

(i) Good and attractive Christian literature is 
cheap, and the pastor is making a great mistake who 
is so afraid of being called a book agent that he fails 
to get his people to read. One of our best known and 
one of our most useful brethren. Dr. J. N. Prest- 
ridge, says : 

'' When a pastor, the writer announced to his sev- 
eral churches, and reminded them on occasions, that 
he was a colporter, a book dealer. Of course he made 



204 Sane Bvangelism 

it plain that he gave his people all the discounts he 
could secure, and claimed as his privilege the paying 
of all express charges when large orders were se- 
cured. He sold at one time a dozen copies of 
* Natural Law in the Spiritual World/ two hundred 
copies of ' The Greatest Thing in the World/ and 
over a thousand copies of a five-cent life of Christ. 
And he now looks back upon that work as being near 
the head of the Hst of work done. And if it must be 
told, he counted himself the constituted agent for the 
denominational paper, and worked up clubs and sent 
in remittances regularly. 

" The great mass of the people in our churches 
need to read more than they need any other one 
thing, and why should the pastor be indifferent to 
this need; yes, this deplorable need? Occasionally a 
pastor counts it too much trouble, and again, per- 
haps, as beneath his dignity to look after the read- 
ing of his people and personally to act for them in 
getting books and papers. But why should he? If 
he has any dignity and any spirit of the Shepherd, 
he can find no better way to manifest it all than by 
becoming the reading guide and reading master of 
his people. Such a relation to them will give him a 
new place in their affection and regard and lift up 
the plane of his conversation with them; and too 
lift up the plane of his preaching." 

(2) Regular and systematic Bible study. This 
may be done in a teacher-training class, and may be 
taught by the pastor. This class will study regular 



Caring tor ^onwQ Convcvts 205 

courses of Bible work as mapped out by our pub- 
lishing houses or as planned by the pastor, and will 
incidentally keep in view the question of methods. 
Into this class may be brought many of these new 
members. 

Then again, the pastor can have the whole church 
reading the Bible with him, giving to them the refer- 
ences for the week, and have them go over before- 
hand that which he is to explain at the prayer meet- 
ing, or in the Sunday morning or night services. In 
one case a Kentucky pastor would often preach a 
sermon on whole books of the Bible and have the 
church read the book on which he was to preach the 
next Sunday. 

Topical studies have been used most effectively in 
getting the young people to take part and to read the 
Bible. A blackboard with the passages given in 
order and read by the audience is needed, and these 
keep eye and ear both interested. Such topics and 
Bible readings may be taken down with pencil and 
paper and used again at the family altar. 

Scriptures repeated in unison by the congregation 
will be stored in the minds and hearts of those who 
are present. A blackboard or a piece of canvas may 
be used to keep these before the eyes of the audience, 
and an occasional reference to them will soon fix 
them in the memory. This same idea should be car- 
ried Into the home, where chapters and verses should 
be memorized by the parents and children. In no 
better way could children earn their own money than 



2o6 Sane Evanoelism 

by receiving pay for every verse which is accurately 
known, and then they would not be at a loss for 
some portion of God's word with which to answer 
the tempter, or with which to help some struggling 
soul, or with which to praise God in the assembly of 
his people, or to plead in prayer when seeking his 
blessing. 

(3) Regular and systematic doctrinal and his- 
torical and mission study, such as that provided by 
our Young People's Union and Mission Boards, is 
food for the growing young Christian. The classes 
are usually composed of small groups who meet at 
stated times to discuss, or to recite, the lesson 
assigned. The Y. M. C. A. is doing great service in 
the schools and colleges by following this same 
plan in their Bible classes, and we may learn 
from these how to gather in groups our young 
Christians for definite work in studying the Bible 
and having them lead in the discussions of gospel 
truths. 

One pastor, Dr. E. Y. Mullins, used to have in the 
week-time an afternoon with the younger members 
of his congregation, and at these meetings led them 
in a study of Bible doctrines and church ordinances 
and practices. 

(4) Regular and systematic attendance upon 
the services of the church is one of God's appointed 
means of growth — the *' teaching service " at the 
Sunday-school hour ; the " preaching service " at 
the morning and evening hours of worship; and 



Caring for l^oung Converts 207 

the '' praying service '' at the mid-week family 
gathering of the members for prayer. 

The day has gone when the Bible-school is to be 
spoken of as the " children's service/' It is now the 
teaching service of the church, and neither young 
nor old can afford to be absent from its sessions. 
Here is the opportunity for food as well as for 
service, and here every one is provided for from the 
baby on the Cradle Roll to the shut-in on the Home 
Department list. 

The prayer meeting must not be allowed to go on 
in a haphazard way, for it will certainly go to noth- 
ing if it does. No service needs more preparation, 
more planning, more attention, more freedom, more 
life, more spirituality. Here the new convert will be 
welcomed, enlisted, encouraged, and fed. 

The regular Sunday worship must be so impor- 
tant, so vital in the life of the pastor and the church, 
that the young Christian will feel the necessity of 
being present. The greatest defect in our preaching 
is possibly that it is too kaleidoscopic, and the audi- 
ence seldom knows what combination to expect 
next. If we can interest the members in a connected 
study and a growing theme, we shall more likely 
hold them for every service. In some way the 
preaching and worship and singing and all must be 
food, and not merely entertainment or merely ritual- 
istic formality. The souls of those who come must 
not go away hungry and disappointed, and we, as 
pastors, must remember that the hungry soul can- 



2o8 Sane Evangelism 

not be fed upon science or rhetoric or logic any 
more than the hungry body can be satisfied with 
music or sculpture or painting. 

3. Exercise. Good wholesome food and an abun- 
dance of pure, fresh air will not suffice to keep 
strong the body. A windmill might be placed -at 
every window to pump in fresh air, and well pre- 
pared meals might be regularly brought to us, but if 
all activities were discarded we would soon be help- 
less dyspeptics. That is a wise pastor who knows 
how to lead his people into some of the many kinds 
of service for the Master. These may be divided as 
follows : 

(i) Work for Individuals. Many Christians be- 
gin to serve by seeking the salvation of some one 
person to whom the heart turns during revival 
services, or to some member of the church who is 
sick, or to one who needs help. Dr. Geo. W. 
Truett tells of a young man who came to him de- 
siring to have his name taken from the church roll. 
The wise pastor sent him to read the Bible and 
pray with one who was blind, agreeing to talk later 
wdth the discouraged young Christian about having 
his name taken off the book. When he returned 
from his visit the service done had brought resto- 
ration of joy, and the request for exclusion was 
withdrawn. 

A pastor in Atlanta, prior to a meeting in his 
church, secured the names and addresses of those 
who should be reached during this special revival 



Carino tor Iffouno Converts 209 

season and assigned each of these to some one of his 
members, and gave that member to understand that 
he would be responsible for securing the attendance 
of this one individual, and would also be expected 
to make special effort to win that one to Christ. 

The '* Personal Workers' Training Class " is an- 
other opportunity for securing those who will work 
for individuals, and such a class should not close its 
work because the special meetings are over. Such a 
band could meet each Sunday morning or evening 
before or after the regular service, discuss the ad- 
visability of approaching certain ones whose names 
were offered, or for whom friends were praying. 
These same workers would be ready any Sunday 
night for an after-meeting, and would help to keep 
up the constant revival. They could visit the sick 
at their homes and in the hospitals, and lead many 
of these suffering ones to Christ while they are 
most thoughtful and most receptive. 

(2) Work for Small Groups. Here we think at 
once and first of all of the Bible-school, and surely 
no place offers greater opportunities for service 
than does the Sunday-school. It is the layman's 
greatest opportunity. The organized class is surely 
God's open door for doing effective service for him 
and for those enlisted. Many times our members 
insist that they desire to go into some class and hear 
some good teacher, rather than teach a group of 
students. This is always a mistake, for the teacher 
always gets more out of the lesson than do those 



210 Sane Bvanaelfsm 

who are taught. To get the greatest good is to 
seek to help the others. There are the '' givers " and 
the '' getters " in every church, those who are there 
to get what they can, and those who give themselves, 
their service, their money, their prayers, their inter- 
est, their sympathy. The '' getters '' seldom give 
and get but little, but the '' givers," while always 
giving, are forever getting more than they give. 

Other groups are the Sunbeams, the Young 
Ladies' Society, the Woman's Aid, the Mission 
Study Classes, the Young People's Union, and 
numerous other smaller groups of the members of 
the church, or of children. He who would develop 
the young converts must see to it that they are early 
put into some one of the many places where service 
can be rendered. 

One church in one of our cities has a church 
register in which each new member writes his or 
her own name, and opposite the name in parallel 
columns are given the different activities of the 
church, and the new member indicates in one or 
more of these columns the preference as to work 
this new member of the church is willing to do. 
This church expects all its members to be busy 
and has them understand this from the first. What 
a mighty power any church will be which has some 
work for its members to do, and which puts them 
to work as fast as they come into its fellowship. 

(3) Work for the Local Church. This, of course, 
embraces what has been said about the groups, but 



Caring tor l^oung Converts 211 

also refers to the many committees and offices in 
the church as a whole. A monthly conference of 
these committees, or monthly reports to the church's 
business session, or a social and business meeting 
combined, will be effective in securing interest in 
every department. Once a year a church banquet 
will give opportunity for final reports and for talks 
on themes of interest to all the membership. 

The office of deacon is always one of trust and 
honor and responsibility and opportunity. This is 
not the place to discuss the deacon's work, but the 
wise pastor will have his eyes open for young men 
who are to take these places, and such other posi- 
tions of trust as clerk or treasurer. No one knows 
so well as a pastor what a help a good clerk or an 
attentive treasurer can be in making efficient the 
work of the church. 

In one case a pastor appointed a large finance 
committee, and these men were entertained once 
each month at the home of one of the members of 
the committee and discussed matters of finance for 
every department of the church, and made recom- 
mendations to the business session of the church as 
to expenditures and as to plans for meeting the 
same. The best thing about this committee was not 
the work it did, but the church spirit which it fos- 
tered. These men were severally and unitedly 
ready for anything which looked to the advancement 
of the interests of that church. 

A business man who comes into our fellowship as 



212 Sane BvangeUsm 



a new convert is usually ready for real service if 
he sees a place where he can consecrate the business 
sense which he has to the Lord's work, and many lose 
their joy and bury their talents because the oppor- 
tunity to show their faith by their works is not seen, 
or is not pointed out to them. 

(4) Work for the Denomination. Many pastors 
and churches die because they live for self. Some 
see only their own neighborhood, some the county, 
or Association, or State, w^hile others look to the 
larger need and the larger service. The man who 
prayed for himself and his wife, his son John and 
his wife, '' us four and no more," was better than he 
who prays only for himself, and he whose heart 
takes in the world is going to be larger and enjoy 
more because of the larger heart. Each church and 
each member ovv^es a debt to the denomination, and 
this the pastor should keep before the new members, 
seeking to have them attend the district and State 
and denominational gatherings. By giving the name 
of this new convert to the presiding officer the 
pastor can have him appointed on some committee 
and led out into interest in the larger work of the 
denomination. 

In one church in Mississippi the pastor organized 
a company of young business men for the publish- 
ing of a small paper and for doing colportage work 
in the Association. Little or no money was required. 
Books were bought at large discount by the com- 
pany and sold through agents in the different 



Caring tot lacuna Converts 213 

churches. These young men began to take interest 
in the larger work, and not only distributed good 
literature through a number of agents, but were 
led to feel their responsibility and see their oppor- 
tunity in real service. If any money was made 
from the sale of books or literature, it was put into 
the treasury to increase the stock that was carried. 

The pastor will do the young Christians a great 
service if he can take them up where they can view 
the denominational promised land and where they 
can get a good look at the Lord's Israel, and then 
implant within them a longing to be a part of the 
conquering host. Our denominational gatherings 
need these young converts, and they need to look 
in upon and becom.e a real part of such meetings. 
Two young men who, in 1893, looked for the first 
time upon the Southern Baptist Convention in 
session in Nashville, Tenn., will never forget the 
uplift which it gave them, and will never cease to 
be thankful for the desire and the resolution which 
came at that time to be of some service in this same 
great Convention. The men and women of our 
churches owe this larger debt, and the local work 
will be effective in proportion as there is the larger 
sense of duty, for the light which shines farthest will 
shine brightest nearest home. 

(5) Work for the Kingdom. Loyalty to the local 
and denominational interests will mean also loyalty 
to the kingdom. Every child of God will rejoice in 
the civic, the national, and international growth of 



214 Sane Bvangelism 

commerce, education, morality, philanthropy, and 
righteousness. For the kingdoms of this world are 
to be the kingdom of our Lord, and he is to be King 
of kings and Lord of lords. 

The young convert who sees that the place which 
he now fills and the calling to which his life is 
given must be filled to the glory of God, and must 
have as its ultimate end the bringing in of God's 
kingdom will feel that every place on which he 
stands is holy ground. He will see that holiness is 
to be written upon the pots and vessels of the 
kitchen, upon the harness of the horses, upon the 
door of the office, the grip of the traveling man, the 
counter of the merchant, the broom of the house- 
keeper, the hand of the laborer, the uniform of 
the nurse, the desk of the teacher, the ticket of 
the politician, the physician's buggy, the surgeon's 
knife, the chair of the governor or president, the 
bar of the pleader at law, and the judge's bench, 
as well as upon the study or the pulpit. Whether 
he eat or drink, or whatsoever he does, is to be 
done to the glory of God. Like the traveling man in 
Mississippi, who said that he was a Christian and 
that he sold stationery to pay expenses, so the 
young convert will make the most of his life who 
sees that he is to seek first in all things, all 
places, and all times, the " kingdom of God and his 
righteousness." 

A trained nurse came recently to an evangelist, 
and with tearful eyes said that she could do little so- 



Carina for J^oung Converts 215 

called church work, and asked if she could serve 
God as a nurse. It was a joy to tell her that this 
was one of the best of all opportunities for doing 
the most effective work for the Master. That 
leader will be a blessing who lets the young Chris- 
tians see that their daily life is their daily oppor- 
tunity for service, and that they make most of their 
religion ^' only when they take their religion into 
the field of their predominant interests," that " they 
can make religion real only when they do business 
with religion in it," that '' a man has a right only 
to so much of the good things of the earth as he 
can devote to moral purposes." 

Many young Christians would be strengthened 
and encouraged could they see something more of 
the great army in which they are enrolled, and 
could they sometimes be told of the larger war- 
fare in which they are engaged. A young man who, 
in his earher years, had sold the New York papers, 
had now come for the first time to see the many 
buildings and streets and parks and bridges and 
such like, of which he had read. He visited its 
public buildings, rode on its elevated trains, watched 
its surging crowds, delighted in its greatness, and 
felt lost amid its towering structures. One day he 
went up to the top of " The World " building, and 
from that point of view he was able to see the city 
in its entirety. No longer did its winding streets 
and towering buildings confuse him, for now he 
could put them together into a oneness, and he 



2i6 Sane Bvangelfsm 

knew and understood and admired and loved New 
York from that hour as never before. Even until 
now, when he thinks of the metropolis, it is not 
of some single street, as Fifth Avenue, or Broad- 
way, or Wall Street; not of some single section or 
quarter, not of its parks or piers alone; not of its 
art or business, but somehow it is all related and all 
in one. The young convert needs to be taken to the 
top of some '' World " building, some Eiffel tower, 
and see God's kingdom embracing every pleasure, 
every line of business, every walk and work of man, 
and that view and that conception will live with him 
and cheer and strengthen the days as he moves with 
the passing, toiling throngs. He will no longer 
be simply one of the group which lives in his home, 
or one of the hundreds who live on his street, or 
one of the thousands or millions who live in his city, 
or State, or nation, but he will be a citizen of the 
kingdom, and the politics of his life will come from 
heaven, and he will be satisfied with nothing short 
of a realization of heaven here and hereafter. His 
desire and prayer and work and expectation will 
be, " Thy Kingdom Come." 



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